The Wolf of Sector Y
by Fira Astrali
Summary: The Aparoids are closing in, and Wolf is a man short, but just what happens when the one he finds is a girl with amazing talent and a terrible past? I'm new at this, so please r&r. Been having trouble with the chaps, pleas pm me with any problems, thanks.
1. Chapter 1

Sloan took one quick look at her reflection in a puddle before stepping into a bar called the Bleeding Rose. She had heard that Wolf and his team mates frequented this bar, so it was the best place to look for information on them.

Besides a quick scan of the bar, she kept her eyes down. Most people in a bar like this one weren't the kind who wanted to be recognized. The music was loud enough so you couldn't eavesdrop on a conversation, but not to loud that you couldn't have one at all. She took a seat at a free barstool, the only free stool, next to a wolf with pale blue eyes that were glazed over with alcohol. She wondered what he had seen that was so terrible that he needed to drown it like that. The bartender, a skunk, tall and handsome, came over to her.

"What's yer' poison?" he asked.

"Aquas Blue," she answered. It had always been her favourite, and was more of a cooler than hard liquor.

"Seem a little young," the wolf muttered, his voice was hardly slurred at all from his drinking. Maybe his eyes always had that glazed look.

"Come on, bud," the avian next to him said, his voice slurred horribly. He wasn't holding his liquor as well as his partner, avians rarely did. "Leave the kid alone."

"Man, shu' up. I am sick, of these dumps. I am sick of shitty hotels, and shitty bars. Jus' once, I wanna' know what the good life is like," the wolf growled. Sloan laughed darkly.

"You an' me both, man," Sloan assured him. He stared into her eyes. They were so piercing, she wanted to look away, but looking away would be a sign of insecurity and weakness.

"Yeah?" He laughed too. "Yeah. So, what brings you here, anyways?" Sloan reached for the drink that the bartender had just placed at her elbow. She took a long swallow and watched the multi-shade, blue mixture swirl around the glass.

"My freedom. That's what."

"From who?" Sloan's face hardened.

"You ever heard of the Warden?" The wolf looked at her with eyes that seemed sympathetic, but the look soon disappeared. She was glad. She was sick of sympathetic looks, when in the end, no one really did anything.

"Yeah, I've heard. You're a prisoner of Sector Y," he said. Sloan nodded. He knew all about them. Heck, he had probably hunted a few orphans that had somehow escaped from the Warden's iron grasp. The Sector Y Institute for the Parentally Challenged was run by a man called Alex Warren, but everyone knew him as the Warden, although she had seen some of his rats call him "Mr. Warren, Sir." "Thank you, Mr. Warren, sir. Of course, Mr. Warren, sir." Sloan had spent her entire life in Sector Y, and now she had decided that she either had to escape him, or die.

"I'm looking for information on Star Wolf. I'm told he's looking for a new crew member. The job may be my only chance to get free."

"You're awful young to hit the cockpit, and a gang of mercenary pirates isn't the usual job for a kid you're age. What are you, fifteen, sixteen on the outside?"

"It's the only thing I can do, flying. If I just run, he'll use government funds to buy a bounty hunter to get me back. You can't just run real fast and hope real hard," she told him, ignoring the question of her age. The wolf looked at her, seeming to wrestle with something inside of him.

"The first tryout is exactly a week from now and they go for seven days. Be at Sargasso Space station bright and early." Sloan's dark brown eyes widened.

"You think…?"

"If you can fly, you have a chance."

She sat out another hour or two on that barstool, finishing her drink and listening to the casual talk of the two friends. She eventually said goodbye and got up to leave. The wolf grabbed her arm.

"My name is Roe Morgan. If you don't get in, I may be able to get you into a cockpit. It won't be the same, but it'll be work." Sloan nodded.

"Thanks, but I've got a bit of money. If I don't get picked, Lylat will never see me again."

"Damn shame," the avian muttered into his drink. Roe released Sloan's arm and gave her once last piece of advice before she left the Bleeding Rose.

"Clean up your slang. Wolf hates that shit." Sloan nodded her thanks and left, following the bright lights that would lead her to Corneria City's main street and civilized society, a place she had never really fit into anyways. She looked carefully around the desolate stretch of road she had emerged at, noticing only a young couple out on a late night stroll and a single car moving down the deserted street, before moving into the blazing light of a streetlamp.

Usually, she didn't like the light of streetlamps, they made her feel like she was on trial for simply being her, or on display at some kind of freak show for everyone to see and be amazed with, but tonight, she had to. She couldn't look like she was hiding. She had forgotten to check in with one of the Marshals and she was now about thirty minutes past curfew. She shivered and flipped the collar on her black leather jacket. The shiver wasn't entirely from the cold.

"Funny seeing you here," snarled a voice from behind her. Somehow, they always managed to come from behind. She whipped around and found herself standing inches away from a dragon. And she was angry.

"Marshal Green!" Sloan said, trying to look and sound surprised and completely stupid. A believable act, since Green thought every child on the station was an idiot. A fatal oversight on her part.

"You are far past curfew, and you didn't even have the good sense to check in, we were about to send the police out after you!"

_So nice to know someone is looking out for my wellbeing._ Sloan thought sarcastically.

"I-I can explain, ma'am," Sloan stammered, fiddling with her jacket and looking down at her well used sneakers, wishing most of her fear was only pretend.

"I'm sure you can, and I'm also sure Mr. Warren will be very interested in hearing it." Green grabbed her arm and proceeded to half drag her down the street. Struggled to keep up, tripping over herself in an attempt to keep from falling flat on her face.

As she was forcefully taken to the transport that would take her and the others back to Sector Y, she saw a bright red star that, even in all the hours spent stargazing, she had never seen before. It was glowing so bright, she could even pick it out from the red-orange colour of Sector Z. she wondered if maybe it was Sargasso space station, lighting her way to a whole new life, one devoid of Sector Y, and the Warden.


	2. Chapter 2

Authors note (forgot this the first time) All characters directly rated to the Star Fox franchise is copyright © Nintendo. Storyline and characters not directly related to the Star Fox franchise is copyright © Fira Astrali

Wolf entered the otherwise deserted mechanical bay. He decided he couldn't put the job off any longer. He approached the abused and forsaken Wolfen that had once belonged to Pigma Dengar. Wolfs men drove the fat oaf off after building Sargasso Space Station during the nearly ten years that had passed since the fall of Andross' empire and his stab at reincarnation on Sauria.

He had never trusted Pigma, how could a man who had betrayed someone as great as James McCloud ever be loyal to what Wolf had been at the time they had met, a thin, pale, nineteen year old boy? He couldn't find a reason, except maybe the special powers Andross had brought to his attention during the war, only at the time he couldn't understand why he could, among other things, make defensive barriers and set objects on fire with just his mind, and hadn't told a soul that he had these abilities.

He inspected the Wolfen. It had numerous dents and scratches on it, and about twelve lines on the fuselage that looked like Pigma had scratched them into the paint himself.

"Probably the number of times he pegged Peppy during the whole damn war," he snarled to himself, angry Pigma would do something so stupid to his Wolfen. He meticulously filled in every imperfection on the ship's surface, then went about replenishing the supply of blood red and black paint on the neglected ship. He spray brushed most of it, but there were some smaller lines he couldn't help doing himself. The process took hours.

"So this is why the Wolfen threes took so long, perfectionist," Leon hissed from behind him. He had entered about a half hour ago and had wandered around until he finally realized Wolf wasn't going to talk to him. He had known Wolf long enough to know better than to think he had snuck up on him. Wolf grunted a response. He couldn't be bothered to speak.

After the Wolfen was finished, Wolf went back to his room to finish the test for the recruits. You needed to write a written test and hit 80 or higher to even be considered, he had no intention of hiring an idiot, then you would have fifteen minutes to look over the Wolfen's controls before a dogfight with him, and there was a catch. They were giving enough power for one charge laser, one thirty second Infinite Shield -an invention of Andross', it could keep your ship safe from almost anything, including the explosion of a large star, but it didn't last for very long and was a big power drain- and one smart bomb. Plus, Wolf's ship would have full combat capabilities, not pretty under the best conditions. If they could do any damage at all, they were in

"There, that's it," he said to himself, leaning back from his desk in the study of his quarters after the last few questions were done. Everything was ready, all he could do now was wait.

XXX

"So… um… Sloan, is it?"

"Yes, Warden."

"Now, you look like a smart girl. I don't need to explain how much trouble you are in."

"No, Warden." Sloan knew better than to try and explain. The Warden smiled coldly, opening a file folder that must have been about her. Marshal Green stood behind her, looking disgusted at the very sight of the young girl. Sloan self-consciously pushed away a lock of poorly kept black hair from her face.

"Mr. Warren, I think we should impose the maximum punishment, one week in a solitary chamber!" Sloan wasn't surprised. Solitary chambers were the main source of punishment at the institute, and besides, Marshals were bullies, and Marshal Green was one of the biggest bullies there was. She was an old komodo dragon, an imposing race to begin with, the heavy lines in her scaled skin made it look like she had more of it than her bone structure could support.

The Warden chuckled, it sounded good natured, but Sloan new better. When you looked into his eyes, there was no mercy, no kindness, almost no emotion at all. Just cold, calculated malice. There was no using the stupid treatment on him, he saw right through it.

"Now, now, Marshal, that's a little harsh, don't you think? I mean, it was only a half hour, right, Sloan?"

"Yes, Warden."

"But I of course need to impose on you just how dangerous it is to be out unsupervised after curfew."

_Cuz' you know we'll run if you give us half a chance._ "Yes, Warden."

"So, starting tomorrow, you will serve three days in a solitary chamber, one day for every ten minutes over curfew you were. Do you find this reasonable?"

"Yes, Warden." She didn't find it reasonable at all, but she wasn't near stupid enough to get her sentence lengthened by arguing. Green stepped up and took a strong hold on Sloan's arm. It felt like she was cutting Sloan's circulation off.

"Good. Marshal Green, please escort Sloan to her appropriate sleeping section. I believe dinner is over by now." Sloan tried not to swear. She had missed the only meal of the day.

"Of course, Mr. Warren." Sloan was then pulled out of the room. Green kept a tight hold on her all the way from the Warden's office to the very bowels of the space station, where all the sleeping quarters for the children were located. She was pushed down the final hall before Green spoke.

"I trust even _you_ are intelligent enough to find your way from here."

"Yes Marshal, quite," Sloan said, trying to stay polite. There was but one door in the hallway, so Sloan deduced that, yet again, she was being called stupid. Green hated every kid on the station, but had taken a special interest in Sloan. Probably because Sloan had kicked her when she was four.

The brightly lit, grey hall was guarded by six hired mercenaries. Two at the hall's entrance, two halfway down, and another two at the door. They were there so none of the kids could slip out at night and do a little midnight star gazing. The guard gave her a disapproving look before opening the door. It was key-card locked for "safety".

As soon as Sloan entered, she was hit by the noise and heat of several thousand bodies crammed into a single room, gigantic as it was. The room was huge, large enough to house them all, although things could get a little cozy. It had several levels to it, with a single walkway spiraling slowly downwards at an angle. It was filled with bunks, children of all ages, and both genders, little else. Some of the more crafty youths had rigged up a few makeshift tables. There were about ten guards on every level, watching closely for and kind of offence to occur so they could spill some blood. One guard stepped up to her and she instinctively held out her barcoded right arm. There was a momentary stab of pain before she was logged as being present and led down to her section.

"Don't cause any trouble," the wolf growled at her before going back to his station. They were all like him: male, muscular, pissed off wolves. Tired and in no mood to talk to anyone, she navigated her way among the throng to her bed, only to find it already occupied.

"Hello, Dolly," chimed Luther, a crow Sloan had known for as long as she could remember. He had, purple-black feathers, smoldering red eyes, and multiple piercings. He was several years older than her and wore a lot of black. Sloan blamed her fashion sense on him, and she absolutely hated the nickname he had given her.

"Buddy, you have thirty seconds to explain why you are in the way of my sleep before I make good and sure they never find your body."

"Chill, Dolly. I heard that you skipped out on curfew, and I didn't see you in the mess hall, so I brought you this." He produced from his jacket the still sealed dinner package that Sloan would have received if she had been there. It was a balanced meal and supposedly good for you, but it left a lot to be desired in the way of taste. Well, there was taste to it, but one sure sign the food had been tampered with in frightening ways was the toothpaste and sawdust flavour. She almost went for it, but stopped herself.

"And just what do you want in return?" she said, suspicious. Luther shrugged.

"I need a reason to help out a friend?"

"I know you better than that. You'd never do somethin' for nothin'."

"Hey, I'm outta' here in, what, six months?"

"Stop boasting."

"So I figured I better start learning how to be generous, but if you don't want it…" he went to put it back in his jacket. Sloan grabbed it away from him. The kids on the station only got one meal a day, so besides the Aquas Blue she had drank, she had eaten nothing in over twenty-four hours.

"What do I owe you?"

"I'll figure somthin' out." He began to slide off her bed, then added, "It's not like you'll be around for me to collect on it anyways."

"And jus' what's that supposed to mean?" He gave her a look that said don't be stupid, I know everything about you. She saw that look a lot.

"Come on, Dolly, you've never missed a curfew before, and besides, I know where you went last night. Either you've suddenly decided to get all tough and stupid, or you've got a fish on the hook. So, tell me, what is it?"

"Get away from me," she snarled. Luther let out a cold little laugh, then got up off the bed and allowed her to crawl into it. "I've got no idea how you expect to get any sleep in this bustling metropolis of Slaveville," he said as if he hadn't just threatened Sloan's chance for freedom. "I can hardly hear myself think."

"Like you think all that often anyways."

"Cram it, kid." Luther didn't jump into his own bunk, the one next to hers, but instead disappeared into the crowd, looking for a deck of cards to swipe or a nice, quiet place to get into a fist fight with someone. Sloan watched him go before ripping open the dinner package.

As she ate, she thought about how the next three days would be. Dark, cold, and fear filled. The only thing that brought her any kind of hope was what lay in store for her in exactly a week, as long as Luther didn't get in the way first. How had he found her? How could he possibly have followed her without her noticing? It annoyed her how good he was at that, and she was also annoyed with herself at how glad she was that he was on her team. She never even noticed Brad, one of the Warden's rats that had been listening to their entire conversation, scurry off.


	3. Chapter 3

Sloan stood in her place, chin on her chest. She was so tired. She hadn't slept at all the night before, she had been too nervous. Today was the day her life would change. She had survived the three tortuous days in the pitch black of solitary, and now if she could just get through roll-call, she would be free. Her sleeping level stood in six long rows in the Meal Hall. The steel tables, fashioned like a picnic table and sterile white, just like the rest of the room, were gone to make room for Sloan and the other inhabitants. The bright florescent lights on the grey panel ceiling reflected on the white tile floor. It was a dull place by any means, but at least it wasn't the gloomy green-black that was the rest of the station.

"Morning, dolly." Sloan rolled her eyes. Luther. Today he had traded his usual leather jacket for a black windbreaker that Sloan had never seen, it seemed new.

"Be quiet, Luther, you'll get us in trouble"

"How rude. I-"

"Quiet!" snapped a guard. Luther's beak snapped shut, but his eyes smouldered. As soon as the guard's back was turned, he flashed him a hand sign that would have put him away in solitary for a week at least. The max punishment for missing curfew was a week, but for many other offences, solitary could last for far longer. She grabbed his hand and pushed it back down to his side. She felt his hand shift, and something fell into hers. She looked down and opened her hand ever so slightly. Dehydrated apple slivers like the ones that you got out of the meal packages. She glared at him angrily.

"You stole these just now, didn't you." He grinned. That was a yes. She closed her hand again and looked back down at the ground as the guard came by, then looked back at him. "Are you trying to get us both in trouble? I have a date with destiny today, my future boss will be angry if I'm late."

"Cocky, just eat it before they think you're the one who stole them." Luther growled before swallowing his mouthful. Sloan ate hers too. No point in going on an empty stomach. "So, who exactly do you think your future boss is going to be?" Luther inquired. Sloan shot him an angry look. Luther returned it.

"What? You think I'm a rat?"

"No, but he is," Sloan growled, jerking her head towards Brad, the ragged looking wolf that scurried away as soon as she turned to look at him. Right now however, he couldn't, stuck standing behind Sloan and three to the right, he couldn't run away without reprimand by guards. His thin grey fur was unkempt, and his left ear was almost raw from his constantly picking at from worry. His clothes were clean and new, however, unlike those of the other inhabitants.

The Warden's rats were his eyes in the station. They were given new clothes almost twice as much as the regular children, which for non-rats was every six months, and they were even afforded real food from time to time. They still lived fearful lives though, not only because rats had been known to go missing if they gave the Warden a piece of news he didn't want to hear, but also because they were hated by the other inhabitants of the station. Finding an ally in Sector Y was hard if you were weak, and impossible for rats. They were the weakest, weak enough to try and find some safety in the Warden.

A lone child was an easy target for a guard wanting to let out some aggression. Sloan had been lucky, up until last year, there had been three people watching over her. They had all come of age and left. Now she only had Luther. He was tough enough to take care of himself, so she didn't feel bad about leaving him by himself. Even though he often infuriated her, she was glad Luther was there watching her back, and he knew it.

She ran her fingers through her thick black hair. Though she tried to make it look decent, it was still a mess. She had put on a well worn zip up camouflage hoodie, as she knew how cold space was. She had also decided on a pair of blue jeans with both knees out and a white shirt. Her other outfit had been cleaned after she had been let out of solitary. There was an old leather bag at her feet, full of every possession she owned. 200 credits, a change of clothes, a hairbrush, a strange stone her old friend Vex had given her, one of the friends that had turned eighteen last year, and some sheet music, also from Vex. He was a talented pianist, and had written the song for her. He had called it Two Steps from Heaven. She waited patiently until she was sure the guard wasn't anywhere around.

"I'm gunna' be Wolf's wingman."

"Really? Tell me, how d'you plan to manage that?"

"You really haven't heard?" Usually, any chance for a job spread through the station like wildfire. Then again, this wasn't a regular job. "Star Wolf is holding tryouts starting today."

"And how do you expect to get there? You can't use the hanger anymore. Only people who have managed to stay out of solitary confinement for a year are allowed to use it." Solitary confinement. Just the two words together made her shiver.

The darkness, the impenetrable blackness that permeated those tiny metal cells and threatened to reach down your throat and pull out your soul, it was the worst part. Worse than starvation, worse than the tiny amount of water you were given, just enough to live. It stuck in your mouth and made it hard to breath, hard to think.

There were stories of children locked up and forgotten about. Even if they were found before they starved to death, they were already food for the fears that lived in the blackness, even if their bodies were still living. They were gone, shivering little bone racks. Terrified to look anyone in the eye for fear they would be punished again. Every time that thick iron door closed, you couldn't help but wonder if you were going to be one of those forgotten children, those children that curled up in the corner, always in need of a guardian. The darkness had threatened to take her when she was little. That darkness was a week behind her now, never to come again. She flashed a plastic card in his face.

"My hanger card from last year, I've had it for awhile. I was saving it for a special occasion. It still has the full week's worth of flight time on it."

"Clever little gaffer, keep that 'til you need it, do your job hunting on the Planetary Visitation days." The Planetary Visitation days were the three days a month even the inhabitants of Sector Y without a hanger card was allowed to go to Cornaria under the watchful gaze of a Marshal. Most chose to go and rid themselves of the bleak world that was Sector Y, even if it was only for a few hours. Luther wasn't one of them.

Roll-call was finally done at 7:30. Roll call was done to make sure that, even though the sleeping quarters were locked down and guarded heavily, no children had somehow slipped off in the night. The more children the Warden could keep a hold of, the more money he got for taking care of them. It they got away, he wouldn't get money for them until they returned. Sloan thought it was pretty sick reason to take care of so many kids. Sloan and Luther left together. As they walked toward the hanger, Sloan noticed Luther's eyes darting around.

"What are you looking for?"

"Brad. I think he's on to you." Sloan stopped in her tracks.

"What makes you think that?"

"He's bin' sniffing around you and me the last couple of days. Every time I turn around, he's there." Sloan nodded. It was time to go.

Luther stopped her again outside the door to the hanger. He looked at her in a strange way. For a moment, they stood staring at each other, then Luther pulled off his windbreaker and threw it around her shoulders. Sloan jumped in surprise, but Luther said nothing. His blue shirt was just tight enough to hint at the well defined muscles on his huge expanse of chest. He only nodded, then disappeared down the hallway. Sloan watched him go. Had that been his way of saying goodbye? She zipped it up, then wheeled around and stepped into the hanger.

The smell of diesel, jet fuel and alcohol washed over her as soon as the door opened. The door opened onto a catwalk that spanned a room that was almost fifty feet across. It was probably the best taken care of room in the station. The polished black floor shone with the light from the florescent bulbs overhead. Maintenance cranes were everywhere. This was the only place Sloan had ever seen a female under the mercenary mark. She was a mechanic and worked exclusively on the mercenary ships. She was also a wolf. It seemed every solider in the mercenary group was.

The biggest ship in the hanger belonged to the mercenary group. The _Demon's Mark_. The ship's twenty foot long, arrow shaped black hull was broken only by blood red trim. It was obviously a ship meant for war, cannons ran along the hull every six feet or so. A huge cannon was mounted at the front of the ship, jutting out from below. It had six powerful engines. It was both impressive and intimidating. She hoped she never had to see it in action.

Her own ship was far less grand. It was a small, one seat fighter that she had made herself from a miss-match collection of older ships. It wasn't very powerful, had no weapons and only two G-Diffusers. Its wings were a brownish red and the body was a light blue.

"And just what do you think you're doing here?" snarled a voice from behind her. The hanger guard. A heavy hand grabbed her shoulder and turned her around sharply. The muzzle of the hanger guard was about two inches from her own nose. She was staring directly into his angry black eyes. She could smell alcohol on his rancid breath. He took his hand off her shoulder and grabbed a fistful off her collar, lifting her onto her toes. "Last time I saw you, you were on your way to a solitary cell. I doubt the Warden has granted you a hanger Card." His lips curled back into a snarl. Sloan was worried he was going to bite her.

She hurriedly pulled the hanger card out of her pocket. His eyes locked on the card for a second. Sloan felt his hand tighten in anger before dropping her. So he wouldn't get to beat her senseless. He snatched the red and white card out of her hand and limped to the guard house. She followed him without a word.

The small guard house had in it only a card table, a beaten up old chair, and a card scanner on the table. He slipped it through the scanner, and she watched as his eyes narrowed in anger. Sloan let out the breath she had been holding in. The card checked out, the Warden hadn't decided to invalidate it. He put it down on the table and jerked his head towards her ship. She didn't waste any time in getting out of his way. He wanted to hit somebody, he always did. Getting cheated out of a good pounding aggravated the man more than anything.

The canopy was already open and waiting for her. She never bothered closing it, there was nothing in it worth taking. She threw her bag into the ship behind the seat and jumped up onto the wing before stepping into the fighter and sliding into the seat. She flicked on some switches, and the engine roared to life. The canopy closed automatically and the control panel lit up as she strapped herself into the four-point harness that kept her safely in the seat. She wrapped her hands around the joy stick and consulted the HUD on the canopy glass. Dammit, she had forgotten to replace the energy coils. They had 32 energy left. It would be enough to keep the most important features going until she reached Sector Z, but no more. She watched as the huge bay doors opened, leaving a two way force field between her and the infinite blackness of space that kept in the air, but didn't keep out the cold.

The darkness out there was different than the darkness in the cells. It was just as thick, but it was calm, and it was dotted by tiny pin-pricks of hope, like someone had taken a pin to a bolt of black silk a billon times She set in a course for Sector Z.

"You're cleared to go, Sloan. Now get the hell out," snarled the raspy voice of the hanger guard.

"Yes, sir!" The thrust from the engine pushed her back onto the seat. She consulted the HUD again, and nearly jumped out of her skin when the young, grinning face of the Warden was looking back at her. She whipped around and saw the well groomed and dressed fox standing on the catwalk with Bradley by his side. His face had somehow reflected onto her canopy. As she disappeared into space, Sloan wondered how much he knew.

XXX

Wolf sat quietly in his quarters, the only light coming from the stars outside the bay window behind him and the flashing red lights from a digital clock on the desk to his right. He was silently pondering a picture in his hand of a family of wolves.

The two adults in the picture were young and happy. The woman, tall and beautiful, had shoulder length black hair. Her fur was also black as night, and her blue eyes were stunning. The man to her right had grey fur. A grin spread across his face, and his one purple eye danced with mischief. His other eye was covered by an eye patch. His hands were on the shoulders of a two year old boy to keep him from bouncing around so the picture could be taken. He had blue eyes just like his mother's and black fur with a grey streak in between his white-tipped ears. The woman was holding a newborn girl with the same purple eyes as her father, and dark grey fur with a streak of pure white in between her ears. Everyone was smiling. Behind the family were a medium sized white bungalow and a well taken care of lawn. If it wasn't for the man in the picture, everything would have seemed completely normal.

"Wolf, it's time." Wolf jumped a little bit. He had been so absorbed in the memories of the past that it hadn't registered that Panther was standing in the doorway, though he had sensed a presence. He had figured it was nostalgia getting the best of him. The door was around the corner of his quarters, so he didn't see the picture that Wolf was holding, nor did he see him slip into a pocket. He got up and walked across the white-blue carpet floor and slipped into his boots. It was time for the beginning of the tryouts. If all went well, he might be able to find a half decent pilot that he could turn into something acceptable by his standards. Then again, anything was better than Pigma.

Wolf was surprised by the turnout. He stood above them all, on the tower in the middle of Sargasso. The whole ground floor was filled with ex-mercenaries and soldiers. Almost all looked to have military training of some kind. Except one.

"Hey, Wolf, look over there," Panther said, pointing to one corner of the lobby. Leon stepped forward.

"What's a girl like that doing here?" he hissed. Wolf couldn't see the person they were talking about, only a throng of people.

"What am I supposed to be looking at?"

"Over there. Human, black hair, wind breaker, maybe… fourteen years old?"

"I see her." She was sitting in a corner, a windbreaker that was twice too big for her wrapped around her thin frame. Her messy black hair was cut off about half way to her shoulders. The hood of a camouflage sweater was poking out of the windbreaker. She was shivering, but Wolf wasn't sure if it was less from cold and more from fright. From the looks she was receiving from the people near her she could tell she wasn't welcome. A hotshot young pilot was never appreciated. Leon was right, she looked very out of place. He puzzled over her for a moment. Surely she wasn't there in the hopes of joining Star Wolf. He would have gone down and questioned her, but the crowd was beginning to get restless.

"Alright!" Wolf's voiced boomed out over the crowd, silencing it immediately. "Looks to me like we have enough. You may all proceed to the testing room. Remember, 80 is needed to pass." Thirteen of Sargasso's inhabitants ushered the over 3000 people into one huge room filled with desks and chairs. Wolf watched in interest as the girl took a seat at the back of the room. She looked alarmed. She probably hadn't known there would be a written test. The papers were passed out by other Sargasso residents.

Wolf strode in after everyone was seated. A wave of awed muttering followed him down the aisle. He smiled. He couldn't help but be amused. Here he was, the most wanted, some say the most dangerous, man in Lylat, and half the people in this room wanted to be just like him. If they ever made it to where he was, they were in for a big surprise.

At the front of the room was a larger desk. He slipped into the chair behind it and put his legs up on it, putting his hand behind his head.

"Alright, class, you may begin. There are pens on your desk. I want them all back." Instantly the sound of pens scratching filled the room. The first three were done in twenty minutes. He recognized the pilots and failed them automatically, they were terrible. As the hours dragged on, more and more began to bring their written tests up. Fail, fail, fail. One after another. It took the whole day to get through them all, and he only had two check marks.

"Times up." He heard several groans as the test were pushed away. He didn't bother looking at the ones that weren't turned in on time. He walked down the row until he reached the desk of the girl he had seen earlier. Her head was down on her desk, was she asleep? He looked over her shoulder at the name on the sheet. Sloan, no last name. He slipped it out from under her. Her head shot up as it brushed past her elbow.

"Hey!" she snapped, but instantly shrank back as she realized who it was. He looked her up and down.

"You look a little young to be here. How old are you?"

"Sixteen."

"You're sixteen and I'm the empress of Venom." He was about the throw the test back at her, but since she couldn't have been more than fourteen, he decided he would humour her and at least look at it.

He was amazed. He looked over each answer, they were all right. This little girl was the only one of thousands of adults to get a perfect score. He put a check mark on the front of her three page package before throwing it back down on the desk. He was still staring at her when he made his announcement,

"Everybody with a checkmark on their page is to follow me to the hanger." She blinked at him stupidly as everyone else got out of their seats and left the room until only Wolf, Sloan, and the two others with checkmarks stood in the huge, grey panel, brightly lit room.

"Let's go." He began to leave the room, but stopped when Sloan didn't follow. "That means you."

XXX

Sloan felt numb. It was as if Wolf had chosen her, picked out from thousands of others. She hadn't known she had to hand her test in, and had fallen asleep. He hadn't marked any of the other late ones, but had gone straight to her. Now she was following behind him and the other two who had passed as they were led into an elevator. It was huge, big enough to hold two tanks and plenty of infantry if need be. The floor was blue tinted glass and the sides were totally transparent. Except for a little shine, it was almost impossible to tell they were there. She listened in on the other two as they teased each other on the way down.

"So don't bust up my Wolfen too badly, huh?" the female said in jest to her male counterpart. She was a seagull, tall and graceful, with white feathers. There were black feathers near her green eyes, and they made them seem cold and calculating. The man was a zone tailed hawk. His feathers were pitch black, and his angry red eyes reminded her of Luther. They both wore grey uniforms, and Sloan wondered why they were here if they already had a job. Probably moving though the ranks.

"You're Wolfen? Hardly."

"You just watch. I make you wish you never said that."

"I highly doubt it." They didn't spare Sloan as mush as a disapproving glance. Why did they think she was here, field trip? It was if the possibility of her flying better than the wasn't even worth thinking about. They obviously didn't think she was much of a threat. Boy, she was going to do her best to prove them wrong.

The hanger on Sargasso wasn't that different from the one in Sector Y, except it was cavernous compared to the one in the station. Six A class destroyers were lined up next to each other as several maintenance crews ran between them, check to make sure everything was in order. The rest of the hanger was filled with one and two man fighters. They were all ancient, with peeling paint and deep gashes in their hulls. Sloan couldn't see how they were flight worthy.

"Where are the Wolfens?" asked the seagull.

"Cool you're boosters, we're getting there," Wolf assured her. They walked the rest of the way down the catwalk, which was twice as long as the one in the old station. She was led to another elevator, with black steel walls and pink tinted glass floors. There was a handrail that ran around the wall at waist height. The other three leaned against it nonchalantly as the elevator took them even deeper into the belly of Sargasso, but Sloan stood uncomfortably near the door. Could she really pull this off? The door opened into the private hanger. There they were, those black and crimson beauties. Three Gravity Wings flowered out from behind it, glowing green. At the sides of the ship were the guns, one on each side. The hull split in the middle into almost two parts, where the bombs were deployed. The black tinted cockpit sat on top of it all. Beside one was the grinning face of Leon Powalski. The second pilot she didn't recognize.

He was a panther, his fur was dark blue, and a white scar curled up his cheek and ended at his eye. His gold coloured chest plate was adorned by a pair of wings etched into it. A mischievous smile played around his lips. The other two Wolfens were unmanned. One was obviously Wolf's, and the one nearest the door was…

"Ladies and gentleman, the Wolfen in question." It look even better than the other ones, except the one that belonged to Wolf, like it had been given a lot of T.L.C. not to long ago. "So, you have five minutes to look it over. Who's going first?" The seagull strode over to the Wolfen's open canopy and jumped in.

"I will," she said offhandedly.

"As if it's not totally obvious," the hawk muttered. "I'll clean up after her."

"So I guess we save the best for last," purred the panther. Sloan jumped. Who, her? The seagull scoffed.

"Hardly, let's go, I'm ready," she said coldly. Wolf grinned.

"If that's what you want. While were busy, you can look in the other two ships, just don't touch anything." He jumped into his own Wolfen. The bay doors opened, and the two ships tore through the force-field for the asteroids and copper coloured nebula gas surrounding Sargasso.

"Awfully cocky, don't you think?" said the panther. Sloan looked back over her shoulder at the man.

"I… I guess," she mumbled. The panther nodded towards his own Wolfen.

"Would you like to take a look?"

"Oh, yeah, thanks." She walked over to his ship. An ornate rose was painted on the hull, just below the glass of the canopy. It was huge, it must have taken him forever to make it. The panther pressed a button on a control bracelet on his wrist. The canopy slid open automatically. She pulled herself in, and slipped into the comfortable leather seat. The consol lit up in reaction to her body weight on the seat. Everything looked so professional. The panther pulled himself onto the wing. She looked at the controls, they all seemed the same. How had the seagull figured it out so quickly? She looked up at the panther in a silent plea for help. He smiled warmly, and she found herself wanting to turn and see who he was looking at. No one had ever even smiled at her like that before. "Um, how do you…?"

"Turn it on? Here it's just like most other ships…" It took him about five minutes to run through start up, weapons systems, shields, and anything else a pilot would need to know. He was about to continue, but the sound of a smart bomb explosion rocked the hanger and cut him off. Sloan's head shot up. She jumped out of the Wolfen. The blue-white light of the explosion still lingered in the air. Two ships flew out from the explosion, one riding in front, another one jetting away at full speed.

"Which one is which?" Sloan asked.

"Wolf's probably the one riding the explosion. The young lady seagull is probably the one going in the other direction. See her pulling up above the blast radius? It's a good indication she dropped the bomb." Wolf's ship did a big U-Turn and was on the seagull in half a second. His green Demon Lasers lit up the sky, pounding into the back of the seagull's own Wolfen, pummelling her. She stopped, dead in space. Wolf circled her a few times before heading back to Sargasso. The other Wolfen came back to life and followed him in.

Wolf didn't bother getting out of the Wolfen, instead just pulling open the canopy enough to say: "Next." The seagull wasn't as quick.

"Not even a scratch… I didn't even get a scratch on him. Not one…" The hawk had to help her out of the cockpit. She looked stunned and horrified. The hawk jumped into the Wolfen and was quick to take off after Wolf. He seemed angry that Wolf had made a fool out of his lady friend.

The hawk's flightwork was a lot fancier than the seagull's. He dipped in and around the asteroids, taking full advantage of their cover. He was probably hoping that Wolf would make a mistake and hit one of the huge pieces of space junk. He never did. Every twist and turn was easily emulated by Wolf, his prowess unmistakable. When they both appeared out of the asteroids, Wolf was pounding on the hawk's back end, but Sloan could see them bouncing off in every direction like a shower of fireworks sparks. He was using the 30 second shield. They both dove in and out of view, and the hawk couldn't gain the upper hand. While the seagull was taken down in a matter of minutes, the dog fight between Wolf and the hawk raged for well over an hour. But in the end, Wolf again emerged victorious. Again, there wasn't a scratch on his ship.

"Next." Sloan felt as though her legs had suddenly turned to jelly. Her heart was beating in her throat. There was no way she could pull this off. Not a snowball's chance in hell. As she moved over to the Wolfen, it felt as if time as if time had slowed down. As she was slowly climbing into the Wolfen, she felt something stiff in her coat poke he. Once she was seated in the ship, her four point harness securely holding her in place, she reached into the thief's pocket on the inside of the windbreaker and pulled out a sleek, purplish-black feather. It was one of Luther's. He had meant to give her the jacket the whole time. The feather had been placed there for a little extra luck. She was definitely going to need it.

"Now this is one thing I've just got to see," she heard the panther say as she watched him climb into his Wolfen. Leon jumped in surprise.

"What?! Panther, you're not leaving me here with these fools!" he jumped into his own. She thought she saw a shadow Wolf shake its head through the canopy.

"Fine, you two, stay in this hanger, or else." The hawk nodded his understanding, and the seagull was still oblivious to everything. He had a hold of her shoulders tightly. Sloan couldn't help but wonder if they were just as desperate as she was to get the job.

Wolf surged out of the hanger at top speed, followed by Sloan. Panther and Leon followed from behind. They flew for a little ways before Wolf swerved hard to the right.

"Alright pup, let's see what you've got," he growled. She braked hard and Leon And Panther flew over her, disappearing behind some space boulders. Sloan's mind raced, what was she supposed to do? She had no idea where Wolf was, and she had no plan. But if she just stayed hanging in space, she was a sitting duck. The complete silence of space started to creep into the cockpit. It was too quiet. The only thing she could hear was her own breathing, laboured as it was by her fear.

Wolf appeared out of nowhere, his laser's hunting for Sloan's hull. He was right in front of her. Sloan took a deep breath, her pupil's dilating at the sight of the green projectiles. Just like in the hanger, everything began to slow down. The laser suddenly seemed to almost stop, hanging in space, crawling towards her. She did a somersault, but instead of returning to her original position in front of Wolf, she shot straight down at break-neck speed once the laser had passed her harmlessly by. Even though she knew she was going very fast, the asteroids floated past the canopy view as if she was only going at walking speed. Wolf followed as she led him on a high speed chase through the asteroids, twice as fast as the hawk had. She knew she was risking a lot, a turn just one second too soon would send her crashing into one of the huge space rocks surrounding them. She doubted even Wolf's special shields could stop a ship heading full-tilt into a huge floating mountain of stone and debris.

Somehow, it seemed to be working. Her close cutting seemed to be keeping her ahead of Wolf. She only had to do 1 of damage to him, and she was in contention. He was beginning to get closer and closer to the asteroids in his need to get within firing range. Just one more turn and his wing would…

As suddenly as they had started, the asteroids stopped, leaving her in front of Wolf with absolutely no cover. It was a good 45 seconds before she realized she was no longer in the asteroid belt. At speed she was going, that was a good distance. Even without looking at her HUD, she knew Wolf had opened fire. She switched on her thirty second shield and let the Wolfen unwind. The G-forces from the speed tunnelled her vision. She shot right past Wolf, heading for the cover of the asteroids.

Even at full speed she reached cover with only eight seconds to spare. She dove behind a particularly large asteroid. Wolf grinned, he had to say, this one had been fun. But it was time to end this, he had things to do. He tore after Sloan, knowing by the time he caught up to her, her shield would be gone.

He flew over the asteroid Sloan had hidden behind just as the smart bomb erupted. The explosion destroyed the asteroid and sent Wolf into a spin. It ended once he collided with another piece of debris. He shook his head, trying to clear it. This can't be happening. The girl had gotten the better of him in a big way. He should have seen that coming. He looked down at his shields, fearing the damage. He was operating with 65 capacity. With one attack she had taken him down by almost half. She came up behind him and he felt a bump as the charge laser struck his Gravity Wings. 60 capacity. Again, this little girl had done something grown men and women couldn't do. She flew over him, following Leon and Panther Back to Sargasso. The test was over, she had nothing else to attack with.

"Well I'll be damned," Wolf growled. It was his turn to follow the victor back to base.


	4. Chapter 4

Sloan was in heaven. She had been given the key card to one of the quarters reserved for the Star Wolf team. It was grand, more like an apartment than anything else. The door opened into a short hardwood hallway with a coat closet. At the end of the hall was a closed door. It was of the ancient hinge design rather than the regular sliding one. The hinges were modern technology though and wouldn't squeak, and there were two open concept rooms on either side of the hall. One was a living room, complete with T.V., radio, and pure white furniture. The walls and plush carpet were white as well. The other room was a study. That room was hardwood, but the walls were white. The room wasn't that big, just large enough to hold an empty bookcase that was the same height as Sloan, an antique wood desk, and a steel half-sphere swivel chair. The inside of the chair was padded and very comfortable. And, Sloan noticed, if you moved the T.V. just a bit, you could watch from the study. You couldn't see either room from the front door. Sloan decided that the closed door led to the bedroom. On the other side of the living room was a small kitchen, in case you didn't want to eat in the mess hall.

Sloan lifted herself out of the swivel chair and walked into the bedroom. Her breath caught in her throat.

"Oh god," she breathed. The bed itself took her breath away. It was so much more luxurious that the cot she had on Sector Y. The sheets were white and new and clean. The pillow was soft and smooth, not like the hard, lumpy one she used to have. And it was actually big enough that she could roll over without falling off. Big enough for two people easily. The carpet in the room was a soft peach. There was a bed side chest of drawers with a large mirror on top of it. In one corner was a full length mirror, and to the right of the door was the sliding door for a walk in closet. At the other end of the walk in closet was a door to the bathroom.

Sloan threw her bag onto the bed, then slumped onto it herself, still in awe of the whole place. She silently prayed that no one could possibly beat her record. She had taken 40 out of Wolf's shields. If no one else could catch up with her, it was all hers.

She heard the doorbell ring, and jumped up to answer it. It was Panther Caruso, the panther that had taken an interest to her during the testing.

"Oh, hello."

"Ah, Sloan, I hoped you would be here. May I come in?"

"Right, yeah, of course." She moved out of his way and he stepped into the apartment. He looked around.

"Are you enjoying your new home?"

"Yeah, it's real nice," she murmured. He was so impressive looking. He seemed like the kind of man that girls would kill for. She grinned. "Instead of a mercenary, Wolf should have been an interior decorator." Panther laughed.

"Yes, for a man it's quite impressive. Although I wonder if maybe he didn't add a little feminine touch."

"How would he have done that?" For a second, the playful smile slipped off Panther's lips. He shook his head.

"Never mind. The reason I came down here was that I wanted to be the first to congratulate you on passing your tests. I think I will enjoy working with someone as lovely as you very much." Sloan's head snapped up to look at him in surprise. Lovely? Her? What was he thinking? Her eyes fell again and inspected her sneakers.

"I ain't out of the woods yet. There's still six more days to go, y'know." Panther chuckled.

"Oh, trust me, you're definitely out of the woods. The only one I've ever seen pull of the flightwork you did out there, besides Wolf of course, is Fox McCloud. And I doubt _he's_ going to be trying out."

"You think so?"

"Very much I think so. Now, instead of holing up in you room, you should take a look around the station. Wolf will want you to know your way about. Start your rounds tomorrow, it's late now and you must be tired."

"Alright."

XXX

The next day Sloan took Panther's advice, deciding she would sniff around the hanger. She had found her way back onto the catwalk that led to the Wolfen hanger. She was trying to find her own ship in the throng of ancient and decaying fighters. It blended in so well. She had just spotted it when a string of cursing rang through the hanger. Sloan stopped in awe halfway to a ladder she was just about to descend to the floor. The language she was hearing was so colourful she thought for a moment that Luther had followed her to Sargasso. She slid down the ladder and looked through the sea of ships to find the guilty party.

Sloan noticed a crew of four teens working on as many fighters. All of them were her age, none older than seventeen. They were a melange of species. One was hanging out of a ship, kicking their legs as if they were stuck. A male grey wolf turned in their direction and laughed. He said something, and the head of a female ape shot up from the ship. She snapped something, and the wolf was almost on the floor laughing.

"You shit-face meat head! Keep you fucking hands off my ship! You touch this ship again, and I swear you'll be a hood ornament!" The ape cut off her string of swearing to threaten the wolf, who was being held up by a red female hawk. He couldn't stand he was laughing so hard. Sloan moved a little closer. An albino wolf turned his head a little in her direction.

"Could you please tone down the explicatives, we seem to have company," he said. The ape turned her head sharply. The grey wolf stopped laughing, but he was still grinning from ear to ear and there were tears in his eyes.

"Well hello there," said the hawk. She let go of the wolf suddenly and he fell against a fighter, almost smashing his head. The hawk didn't seem too concerned. "Name's Wren, Wren Shire. Please to meet you." If an earthling heard Wren speak they would have identified her accent as English. She offered Sloan her hand, which Sloan shook.

"I'm Sloan." Wren waited patiently for her last name. When Sloan didn't give her one, the ape spoke up.

"Got a last name?" Sloan hesitated, then shook her head.

"My… my parents died a long time ago, when I was a baby. I… I don't know who they are." The ape seemed unconvinced by Sloan's story, but Wren shook her head.

"Now that's too bad." She was turning back to her friends, when suddenly understanding dawned across her face.

"Wait a min', you're Sloan, as in, the one who took 40 out of Lord O'Donnell?"

"Uh, yeah that's me." Wren whipped around to regard the grey wolf, who was still leaning casually against the same fighter.

"Told you she was a girl," she said, grinning and holding out her hand. He shook his head. He reached into his pocket and pulled out ten credits.

"How did you know?" the wolf asked. Wren giggled.

"Oh come on, fuzz head, Lord O'Donnell had fought every male pilot in the system and won. It had to be a girl, besides." Wren giggled. "I saw her on the catwalk. She was the only human on the list. It had to be her." The wolf's mouth dropped open.

"You little cheater. I hate your guts."

"Whattever, hand it over." He hesitated for a moment before dropping the credits into her hand. Wren turned back to Sloan. "Right, I'd like you to meet my buds. This is Muriel," she said, pointing to the ape, still sitting in the cockpit of her fighter, arms crossed over her chest, looking very unimpressed with Sloan. She reminded Sloan of a Marshall. "That fool over there is Asher."

"Oy! None a' that!" barked the grey wolf. Wren giggled again.

"And I am Sol Sanctus," Said the albino wolf, or at least, Sloan was pretty sure he was a wolf, he seemed kind of small. Maybe he was a hybrid

"Wow, that's the coolest name I've ever heard!" Sol smiled.

"Thank you." Sol's clothes were simple, tan jacket and blue jeans, with a red shirt under his jacket. His eyes were covered by sunglasses. Muriel was wearing a mechanic's blue, grease stained jumpsuit. Her fiery red hair was tied back into a ponytail. Asher's grey windbreaker was torn in the upper right arm. The tear was closed by three safety pins. His blue jeans were grease stained and the left knee was torn out.

"We're missing one, his name is Logan. He's a fox. Not hard to spot, hair kinda' spiky, always carries around a guitar…"

"Yeah, well, we've got to get back to work. Nice to meet you, Sloan," Muriel suddenly cut in. Sloan was caught off guard.

"Oh… all-all right. Nice to meet you," Sloan murmured weakly. Asher shot Muriel an angry glance, then turned to Sloan, a huge grin on his face.

"Come around again soon, Loge would love to meet you." Sloan smiled shyly.

"Thanks… I will." Wren shook her head sadly as Sloan headed back to the catwalk.

"Poor girl. My parents are gone too, but a least I've got me name," she sighed. Muriel scoffed.

"I wouldn't feel to sorry for her if I were you." Wren snapped around.

"How dare you! How do you get off being so cruel to her after she tries to-?"

"She's lying." Wren stopped. The group became strangely quiet. Muriel always knew when she was being lied to. Sol stepped forward, silently demanding the attention of the others.

"What makes you think so?" Muriel stared off in the direction Sloan had left in.

"It's a feeling I've got in my gut. I'm not sure why she's lying, but not a word in that sentence was true." The group was silent, until Wren spoke the thought that was on everyone's minds.

"What truth is so terrible that she would create a lie like that to cover it up?"

XXX

Sloan stood on the top floor of the tower in the center of Sargasso. There were several huge screens in the room with her face and record on them. The lobby was almost empty, everyone was in testing. Only the odd Sargasso inhabitant meandered about the place. She had her arms crossed over her stomach, hands holding her elbows, shoulders hunched. A sign of defeat. How could she have been so stupid? Her first chance at making real friends, and she blew it. She wasn't sure what to do, what to say, Sector Y had been so different, alliances just happened.

She was so caught up in her own thoughts that it took awhile for the guitar melody to permeate them. When they finally did, she couldn't shake the sound. The music was so beautiful. Soft singing quietly accompanied the enchanting notes. She looked around, intent on finding the source. It was coming from above her, but how? She was on the highest part of the pillar. Then she remembered the elevator. It was time to find just how high it went.

After running down off the pillar and to the elevator, she walked over to the control panel Wolf had used to activate the elevator the first time. There were only two buttons, a red arrow pointing down and a green one pointing up. At first, Sloan had thought that the elevator was only for the hanger. She pushed the green arrow, and almost fell over as it went shooting upwards. Sloan watched as a huge panel in the ceiling above opened to admit the elevator. It slowed to a stop. Sloan looked down and swallowed hard. It was such a long way up. Riding on a glass elevator at such a height was not her idea of fun. She quickly stepped off.

She was in a hallway. Containers were stacked all over the place. She could see where the hall opened into a much bigger space on the left. The right wall was reinforced glass. Outside she could see the stars, mingling with the copper gas of Sector Z, it was beautiful. The music was louder now, she was closer.

"Hello?" she yelled. Even though the place was filled with containers, her voice still echoed in the cavernous space. The music stopped suddenly. She could hear the rustle of movement.

"Who's there?" a male voice called back. It sounded just like the one that had been singing.

"Sloan. You don't know me, but…" her voice trailed off. She moved into the storage area. On the other side of the room was a hall running parallel to the one she had just come from. On the right side of the room was another room, which held a door. The head of a male fox was poking out from behind a stack of containers. His red-brown hair was spiked, but not too sharply. His green eyes sparkled, and he was smiling.

"Hi there, I'm Logan. How did you find this place? I thought I was the only one who knew it was here."

"I heard you playing from the station's pillar." Logan suddenly seemed surprised. He looked back over his shoulder, then laughed.

"Oh, stupid me. I was playing near the vent again." He turned back and waved her over. She eagerly ran over to him. When she rounded the containers she saw Logan sitting with an expensive looking guitar on his lap. His shirt was light brown, and his blue jeans had a black stain on them. He grinned. "So, did you like what you heard?"

"Oh yes, definitely!" she exclaimed, then looked away embarrassed when he cocked an eyebrow at her. "You, think you could play something else?"

"For you? Sure!" he gently strummed his fingers over the strings. Sloan smiled weakly. "You know, I hide up here a lot. It's nice to get away from everyone for awhile," Logan said offhandedly. "Please don't tell anyone I'm up here. I would hate it for people to come marching up here every time they want to talk to me."

"I won't." They fell into silence after that as Logan played her a beautiful melody. Logan wasn't really sure what he liked so much about her. He had played the song so many times before he could play it in his sleep, but he pretended to watch his fingers so she wouldn't know he was looking at her. She was very pretty. Her almond eyes stared out from her tousled black hair. She was thin, but the windbreaker made her look a bit bigger. She was captivated by the music, watching his fingers pluck the strings.

They spent all that day and the next up in the storage area, coming down only to eat and sleep. Sloan wanted to tell Logan about Vex. He was the reason she love music so much. She knew Logan was glad he had someone to appreciate his music. Sloan felt so strange, she had never been so happy in her whole life. Finally, she had one true friend. But she also felt fearful. Now she had something to lose.


	5. Chapter 5

Wren though it was strange, the way Sloan slept. Her arms were wrapped around her shoulders, her legs pulled slightly in to her chest. Her face was screwed up from an unpleasant dream she was having. Wren hesitated. The seven days of tryouts had passed. The closest anyone had come to Sloan's record was 7. Now Lord O'Donnell wanted to see her. She felt so awkward, standing in Sloan's bedroom. The Star Wolf private quarters were so much nicer than hers. The normal quarters had one room for living in, a food synthesizer, plus a bathroom, nothing else.

Tentatively, she reached out for Sloan's shoulder. Sloan was shivering. She slept on top of the sheets, even though the cold of space had permeated the room. She was sleeping in the clothes that she had worn the day before. The tips of Wren's feathered fingers just touched Sloan's shoulder. Sloan suddenly snapped awake. Her hand lashed out, fingers wrapping tightly around Wren's wrist.

"Luther, what the hell are you…" She had started out yelling, but her voice trailed off when she realized the hand she was restraining did not belong to her former guardian. She released Wren's wrist. Wren looked somewhat fearful. Sloan looked away, ashamed. She sat up on the bed.

"I… I'm sorry. I thought you were… um, I'm really sorry."

"Who the hell is Luther?"

"A guy I used to know. I was having a nightmare, he wouldn't really… look, I'm sorry."

"It's okay. Listen, Lord O'Donnell wants to speak with you. He sent me to get you. He's waiting in the Wolfen hanger."

"Right, thanks." Sloan got changed in a hurry, and the two stepped out into the hall, the two were about to go there separate ways, but then Wren whipped around and grabbed Sloan's arm.

"Why did you lie?" Sloan looked surprised.

"What? What are you…?"

"Please, I know you lied to us. Why?"

"I… I… please." She pulled her arm out of Wren's grasp. "I didn't lie. I have no last name because I have no family." Wren looked at her. She was wrestling with those words. They had a different meaning this time around, but Wren still couldn't figure it out. Finally, she nodded.

"Everyone here has their secrets." The two walked down to the hanger together. Sloan accompanied Wren until they came to the ladder leading down to the hanger floor. Even early in the morning it was a hub of activity. Logan was sitting on his fighter, watching the others work. Wren jumped off the ladder half way down. The sound of her landing made Logan look up, bringing him out of his private thoughts. He saw Wren, and his eyes followed the ladder up to Sloan. He smiled and waved. Sloan blushed, then waved back. Wren looked between the two of them with an odd expression on her face. She suddenly broke into a wide grin.

"I see you two have met." Sloan grinned too.

"You could say that." She skipped down to the second hanger. She was still smiling brightly when the elevator door opened. Wolf was there, just like Wren had said, leaning against his Wolfen.

"Good to see you so bright and chipper at this time in the morning. Do you know how long you've been here?"

"At the station? No, why?" Wolf smiled.

"Never mind. Get into your Wolfen. It's time for some training." Sloan jumped. Her Wolfen? Then she realized that there had been no crowd in the lobby, the screens no longer displayed her face and record. A wave of relief washed over her. "Don't be so thankful," Wolf growled, noticing her expression. "By the time I finish with you, you'll be wishing you had been beaten."

"Trust me, I'd rather be here than anywhere else." She began to crawl into the cockpit.

"Sloan," Wolf called.

"Yeah?" she turned her head just as Wolf threw something at her. Her hand shot up just in time to catch the control bracelet for the Wolfen. It was black and had the letters SW engraved in it in red. She slipped it on her wrist. There was a hiss, and there was a sudden, sharp pain like something had stung her. "Ow!" she shouted, "what was that?"

"Don't worry, it does that. Think of it as your own personal heart monitor." He swung himself up into his own Wolfen and waited impatiently for her to fire her own up.

She followed Wolf out to a training area that had been set out previously. It was in the middle of the asteroid field that Wolf had used for testing. The asteroids around her were scorched from laser blasts. The odd smouldering crater dotted the huge hunks of rocks. Wolf had not been kind to his wingman hopefuls. Gold rings, big enough for the Wolfen to easily fit through, were arranged around the floating debris in a circuit. Drones were floating around stupidly, waiting for the electronic pulse that would be their order to attack.

"So tell me, how much combat experience have you had?" Wolf inquired.

"Oh, I don't know. How long did the two of us go at it a week ago?" Wolf's ship suddenly stopped dead, forcing Sloan to go pull up hard to avoid him.

"You're telling me no one taught you how to do that?"

"That's right. I just kind of figured it out on my own." Wolf thought for a second.

"Interesting," was all he said. He banked sharply to the right. "Start with the rings. Let's see if you can pull those turns off again."

They started off innocent enough, except the first rings doubled her speed. It wasn't so bad, she had come in cautiously. She had expected a trick. Soon the twists and turns became sharper. She picked up speed, founding it easier to pull off the tight turns that way. Wolf was pushing her. He wanted her to fly until she hit something. Her speed increased and the course became harder and more dangerous until finally she was staring down a huge mountain of space rock. Her life was in danger.

Then it hit. Again, everything slowed down to a crawl. Suddenly she had more than enough space to fly around it. She blew through the course and stopped two inches away from Wolf, just higher than him so her blasters pointed directly at his cockpit.

"Alright, you must be trying to kill me."

"I told you, you'll be wishing you were beaten." She saw Wolf sit back in his seat. Had he been nervous as she flew through the obstacle course? "What's wrong, thinking of giving up already?" Sloan gritted her teeth. He was playing with not just her life, but her mind too. She had never liked mind games. She tried to hide her frustration when she spoke into her com link again.

"So, you want me to take a round out of those drones, then?"

"Have at it." He relayed the order to attack, and the drones sprang into action. At first she was wary of them, but she soon realized that they were not in anyways a threat. A toddler could easily have taken out a good chunk of them before they were clever enough to realize that they were being shot at. Since they weren't a really big threat, she started trying harder shots and trying out her bombs. She was fully stocked. After about an hour of play time, Leon and Panther appeared from the asteroids.

"Hey," barked Leon, "save some for me!" Sloan laughed.

"You gotta' be quick! So what are you guys doing out here?"

"Formation flying. Wolf likes to make a flashy entrance." Wolf flew down from his perch near a particularly large asteroid to join them.

"Have you ever done this?"

"Nope, never."

"Great," Leon complained, "you picked a greenie. Training is boring, I just want to blow shit up!"

"Shut _up_, Leon!" Wolf shot back. Leon said nothing, sulking in his Wolfen for awhile. Sloan never expected formation flying to be so hard. Wolf flew behind and above the rest of the team, with Panther flying in front. Sloan and Leon were to the left and right. Sloan had a hard time stay with the group on tight turns and sudden drops. Even after a few hours, she still nearly slammed into Leon on a difficult turn. She pulled to the left sharply, but still left a gash in the side of his ship.

"Watch it, you stupid shit!" he snarled.

"I… I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize," ordered Wolf. "He's just trying to bully you. Hold it, I'm getting a transmission from the hideout."

Wolf punched up the com link. The breathless voice of a Sargasso defender wheezed through the com.

"Sir, its Star Fox. They've… they've… my god they've overrun the station!"

"What!? Get the transporters online!"

"We have! We're defending the elevator, but we only have two transporters left!"

"Shit. Hold until we return. O'Donnell out."

"Yes, my lord."

Wolf growled low in his throat. Star Fox, the last people in Lylat he needed to see. What did they want?

"What is it?" Sloan asked.

"It seems Sargasso's had a few guest while we were away." Sloan's fingers twitched with excitement. Finally, a chance to prove her skills to everyone. "So here's the plan. Leon, Panther and I will take down Star Fox. Peppy's not flying anymore but they've got somebody new so we're out numbered. Sloan, as soon as we get back into Sargasso space zone you are making a beeline for the hanger. As soon as you're in, head for the control room. I'm sure you and Logan know where that is. But watch yourself, if Fox is up there, stay out of sight."

"What!?" Sloan barked, "That's not fair! I want to-!"

"The Star Fox team is no good for a first time dogfight! They will kill you if you give them half a chance. Believe me, I know." Suddenly, Sloan was scared.

"What about you?"

"We've been against these fools before. They're no big deal to professionals like us," Leon hissed. Panther, for a change, was quiet. He had never fought them before, only seen them.

"Let's go."

XXX

Sloan took a different route than the others. She did it so she could get past the Star Fox pilots. She almost got found by the one called Falco, but she dodged behind another fighter. Fighting didn't seem like such a good idea anymore. Already there was debris everywhere from destroyed fighters. Sloan swallowed hard. She had caught sight of a pilot was floating in space, frozen beside the remains of his ship. All Sloan wanted to do was find Logan and hide. When she was with the team it was different, she could be brave because she had someone to watch her back. But she was all alone. If she was caught now she would be a sitting duck.

She piloted her Wolfen perfectly into the hanger. She jumped down, then set the com in her control bracelet to two-way. She wanted to be in contact with Wolf. Star Wolf wouldn't be around for a few minutes, enough time to run. The elevator doors opened and, to her incredible relief, an unharmed Logan was behind them. His eyes were full of fear.

"Sloan, what the hell is going on? All of a sudden two ships came in through the lobby docks and everybody started shooting everybody else!" Sloan took a hold of his shoulders to steady him.

"It's Star Fox, they've decided to storm the hideout."

"What, why? What could we possibly have that they want?" A shiver ran through Sloan. She could think of one bounty they might be interesting in collecting.

"I… I don't know, but Wolf told me to go up to the control room. It's up where you and I hang out." Logan hesitated for a moment, then nodded.

"Okay, let's go, but watch out, there's two of them. One's kinda' short and couldn't hit the broad side of a barn, but that other one is really something." Sloan nodded, and the elevator started up.

What they saw when the reached the lobby was not a pretty sight. There were two lobby docks, big enough for one fighter each. Both were taken up by Arwings. There were bodies and blood everywhere. Sloan stepped carefully over several corpses, spread-eagle and filled with holes.

"He's got a machine gun," she observed.

"A big clip too." Sloan looked over at her friend. He was staring at the closest casualty to him, shaking like a leaf. "That could have been me, you know. He saw me. He was going to shoot me, but I ducked behind some metal crates." Sloan grabbed his arm and began to pull him across the killing field and to a walkway that would take them to the top floor, and the elevator.

"Well it wasn't, okay?"

"Do you think we should pick up a gun? You know, in case he sees us?" Sloan shook her head. If they were spotted, the last thing the assailant needed to think was that they were trying to kill him.

As the two ran for the top floor, the debris and bodies became more numerous, they had defended the hideout to the end. Their end. Sloan couldn't help but imagine what it must have been like in those last few moments, lying there on the floor, all alone and dying, watching as the floor was stain by their own blood.

"Sloan, there's the elevator!" At first she was relived, but then she realized there was nothing left guarding it except bodies. She had a bad feeling about it, but Logan was afraid, and Wolf had told her they would be safe, so she led him up the elevator.

When they reached the top, it was obvious that the shooter had found the elevator too.

"Sloan?"

"Which way to the control room?" Sloan was fighting to keep her voice steady.

"That way." The two weaved around bodies and metal crates. Sloan was about to round a corner when Logan grabbed the back of her windbreaker and pulled her behind some crates. She turned to snap at him, but stopped dead. Fox McCloud stepped out from behind his cover, not six feet from the two teens. He had been reloading his machine gun and that's why they hadn't seen each other. She felt Logan's hands tighten in fear around her arms, just below her shoulders. Fox stood, taking a few tentative steps and looking over his work.

His red and green uniform was covered by a white vest, his hands were white gloved too. His fur was a golden yellow, and he had a white line in between his ears just like Wolf. He switched to his blaster and charged it to full.

"Good job, Fox that's the last of the transfer devices. Now we can take control of the hideout!" A tinny voice on the other end of Fox's com informed him.

"You fools! What are you idiots up to know?" Wolf's voice burst through Sloan's com. For a second Sloan was overcome with relief. Only one second. Then she realized that it had been loud enough that Fox had heard it. His piercing green eyes were staring directly at them. She ducked down a little farther behind the crates. Wolf's voice had come through Fox's com too, so he responded to it instead of searching for them.

"We don't want a fight," Fox hissed into his com.

"Easy for you to say after all the trouble you've caused."

"We're only here for Pigma, so shut your traps and hand him over." A Wolfen went flying past a huge window next to Fox, distracting him enough for Sloan and Logan to escape out from under his gaze.

"Pigma? We don't know anything about Pigma. If he had shown his filthy hide here my men would have driven him out. But there's still one thing. I'm owed an apology, and I _will_ have it! "

"There's no use, you're going to have to suppress Star Wolf with the Arwing." Fox nodded to himself, running down a hall with blaster drawn, intent on the elevator. There was silence for a few seconds afterwards, just to make sure he was gone. Sloan and Logan just looked at each other. That had been to close.

Fox had used a grenade to destroy the last transporter. In a room as small as the control room, he had destroyed everything else too. Pieces of bodies mingled with the wreckage of small tanks. Everything was painted red. Sloan stood frozen, looking at the carnage. Logan had thrown up, unable to stand such a horrible sight. Logan took a hold of her arm again, this time pulling her backwards a step. The door closed.

"This is terrible."

"This is war, I'm afraid. It's what you've chosen." Sloan whipped around. Sol was sitting on top of a metal crate, watching them. Sloan smiled.

"Sol, thank god you're okay."

"Thank you, I'm glad you're alright too. Now, I suggest leaving here and going back to the lobby. The fox has already left and this will be one of the last places to be cleaned of blood and bodies." They followed Sol wordlessly back to the elevator. Sloan noticed as they walked past bodies, one after the other, that it didn't seem to bother Sol that much. It was as if he couldn't even see the bloodbath around him.

"How could one person do so much damage?"

"Frightening, isn't it?" They boarded the elevator and started down. Sloan was about to ask Sol how he could stay so calm when she and the others were nearly thrown off their feet as the station rocked from a sudden impact. The battle between the two teams had already begun.

XXX

Wolf was on Fox as soon as he left the hideout, intent on killing him. His blasters lit up the sky around the Arwing, forcing Fox to fly wildly to avoid them. It didn't take long for the world to slow, and every one of Fox's attacks were child's play to avoid. He came right up behind Fox, ready for the kill.

"What's wrong, finished already?" Wolf taunted. _I'll kill you, you bastard. I'll kill you for what you did. There was no reason to shoot her._ He thought. _You killed her and you wounded me. I won't let you kill this new girl, not like you killed my-_ A laser scorched the side of his ship, and it snapped him out of his thoughts. It also snapped time back to its original flow, and Fox shot away. He cursed himself, whenever he was close enough to finally reap his revenge, the memory of that night came back to him, breaking his concentration and forcing him to let Fox go.

They dance together for awhile, their wings so close together they almost touched, snarling taunts and curses at each other through their coms. Several times Fox broke away to help one of his team mates, and Wolf waited for him to return to finish their fight. He had often wanted to hunt one of the others, but there was no point hunting the new one, Krystal, who he left to Panther, and he would never dream of depriving Leon of his chance to take down Falco.

Leon hated Falco with a passion. He had never really liked him at all, just regarding him as another prey creature. But during their last dogfight, just before the end of the Lylat Wars, Falco had shot him down. Leon had gone down in a fireball, nearly killing him. Thankfully, the doctors had been able to save him. The only thing different afterwards was his voice. His vocal chords had been irreversibly damaged. A voice that had once been deep and masculine was now raspy and metallic. Wolf of course didn't think that was a particularly good reason to want to kill someone, but Leon had always been slightly unbalance to begin with, and his voice had simply been the last straw, so Wolf let him have his fun.

"Wolf?" a scared female voice came through his com.

"Sloan, what are you doing? This is a combat situation, clear the channel!"

"Wolf, Fox is coming up behind you!" Wolf's ears pricked in surprise, he consulted his HUD, and dove sharply just in time to miss a speeding Arwing, which instead shot over him and banked to avoid an asteroid. Wolf looked back at Sargasso, how had she seen that? Surely she wasn't so foolish as to join the fray? Then he saw her, watching the whole thing through a huge window in one of the lobby halls that took up an entire wall. Leon's Wolfen suddenly obscured her from view, closely followed by Falco. He braked as soon as she came into view, stopping mid-flight. Leon was quick to circle around and attack back, but the damage had already been done. A sickening feeling developed in the pit of his stomach. _She'd been seen._ He had wanted her to have at least a few more months of training before Star Fox even knew she existed.

"That's enough for now!" Wolf snapped. Panther and Leon broke away and flew over to their leader. Falco and Krystal did the same. Krystal's Arwing was somewhat battered, but she had done a fair amount of damage to Panther before the battle ended. Wolf hardly listened as the group exchanged small-talk, waiting patiently for Panther to fall into a trap laid unwittingly by Krystal. Sloan tried to ask what was going on, but he quickly silenced her. He couldn't risk her signal being picked up by Star Fox.

"Enough, just tell us where Pigma is," Krystal finally said, getting tired of listening to Falco and Leon shoot insults at each other childishly.

"How can I resist such beauty?" Panther asked himself. "I believe the com log will point you towards Fichina," he purred. Wolf smiled.

"You talk too much. Panther, Leon, let's go. And remember this Fox, Star Wolf _will_ take you down one day."

XXX

Sloan was frozen by surprise. The pilot inside the Arwing that was hanging frozen in space seemed just as surprised. His grey-blue eyes shifted between her face and her control bracelet. The bracelet marked her as a Star Wolf pilot. His feathers were light blue, and there was a white bandana tied around his forehead, keeping some overgrown head-feathers out of his face. There was something about him, maybe his cold, hard eyes. She had seen them so often back at Sector Y. They were the eyes of someone who had been bitten in the ass by life and still had the scars. Of course, Leon just had to come up behind him and sent him shooting off for a dogfight. They didn't have long to fight, however, before Wolf called them off each other. Leon was reluctant to let go of his enemy, and Falco didn't want to stop fighting either.

She leaned into the glass until her face was pressed against the cool surface. She couldn't tell what they were doing. They were just hanging in space, like they were talking or something.

"Wolf, what's-?"

"Quiet." She was taken aback by his shortness with her. What had made him so mad? She had done as she was told, besides the part about the control room, and she definitely wasn't staying in there. She listened in silence as the team exchanged remarks.

"Enough, just tell us where Pigma is," a female voice said.

"You can I resist this beauty? I believe the com log will point you towards Fichina." Wolf's fighter started moving towards Sargasso.

"You talk too much. Panther, Leon, let's go. And remember this Fox, Star Wolf _will_ take you done one day." The words dripped with hatred. "Sloan, hanger, now,' Wolf snapped as Star Fox moved out of come range. He was furious when he finally got face to face with Sloan in the hanger.

"What did I tell you!?" he roared. "I told you, stay in the control room! Why the hell-?"

"Excuse me if I didn't want to spent god knows how long you were out there knee deep in bodies! What is so important about me being by the window?"

"I saw Falco looking at you. They know you're with the team. If they check you out and you don't come up completely clean there going to be all over your ass! I don't need this kind of shit in the middle of training. So if there is anything you haven't told me, and I'm sure there is, feel free to disclose it now." There was a long silence. Sloan was trapped, Wolf's purple eyes boring into her head. He looked as if he could reach right into her brain and grab the information he wanted, so why was he asking? Besides, what was he supposed to say? I'm an orphan runaway and in another day or two someone is going to come looking for me and if I don't have your help they'll haul my ass straight back to hell? No, he definitely didn't want to hear that.

"Um, well, it… it's complicated," she stammered. Wolf's eye narrowed. She tried to continue, but her throat suddenly went dry. She had a sinking feeling that everything was about to come crashing down around her.

"Wolf, you wouldn't happen to know what Pigma has done to attract the attention of Star Fox team." Panther inquired, trying to divert the conversation away from the scared teen in front of them. Wolf looked away from Sloan for a moment, and she found herself letting out a breath she hadn't realized she had been holding.

"At first I would speculate that Fox is out for revenge, but Fox isn't like that, he's grown out of his need for blood. No, he must have done something else to deserve McCloud's attention," Wolf speculated. Leon grinned.

"Maybe it would be in our best interests to find out what the swine's up to," he hissed.

"And," added Panther hastily, "do you really think it would be a good idea to go looking for him with only a three man team?" Wolf stared at him, then looked back over at Sloan. She was still squirming in place from nervousness. His hard stare moved between the three. He finally grunted his agreement. He had just spent a week looking for a pilot that was even half decent, he could at least give her a chance, but it was obvious she was hiding something.

"There's no way Pigma's doing anything more than making trouble on Fichina. I was always too cold there for him. However, I do remember him saying something about the Asteroid belt. It's our best bet." Leon's grin grew wider.

"Then let's pay our old friend a visit."


	6. Chapter 6

The flight to the Asteroid Field was a silent one. Sloan was concentrating hard on flying. Not only was she trying hard not to do anymore screwing up, she was also extremely nervous about her first mission. He fingers trembled as she tried to hold the joystick steady.

"Um, Wolf?

"Shut up." She winced from his anger.

"I-I'm sorry I didn't stay up in the storage area. Sol said we needed to go back down to the lobby…"

"Sloan-"

"And, and, you didn't tell me to stay away from the window…"

"Sloan."

"There were bodies everywhere. It scared Logan so much he threw up, and -"

"Sloan!"

"Y-Yeah?"

"Why the hell do you think you have to apologize all the time? Alright, I forgive you, is that what you want to hear?" There was a pause.

"I thought you were still mad at me, you know, cuz' you weren't talking to me."

"How often do I talk to you on a good day?" She said nothing. She had learned when she was very young that it was never a good idea to have anybody mad at you, it was a survival strategy.

"Wolf, we're entering the Asteroid belt now," Panther reported.

"Yes Panther, I see the big space rocks," Wolf growled back sarcastically. "Okay, let's see, scanning for anomalies. Whoa, there's a big one. I'm reading a huge power source not to far from here."

"Me to," Panther confirmed, "Could be a base."

"Let's go, and keep you eyes peeled. Pigma never misses a trick, and I'm sure he'll pull out all the stops for his guests." He banked sharply to his left and went speeding off through the asteroids. Sloan tried to catch him, but for some reason her speed was only half what it usually was. Suddenly, a shock went racing through the fighter's console, damaging the Wolfen and electrocuting her. Panther heard her scream of pain over the com and flew over to her.

"Sloan, there's something attached to your ship!"

"Well get it off!" the thing Panther saw was a small black spike that had pierced into the Wolfen. It had two arms made of white power and the arms ended in two more black spikes. It hadn't pierced in anywhere that would cause her to lose cabin pressure, but it was sucking precious energy from the ship's battery and shields. Panther shook his head.

"I can't make that shot."

"Wuss!" Leon fired a shot across Sloan's ship. The strange creature blew up, the three spikes dislodging from the Wolfen and floating away. Wolf reappeared, barrel rolling to avoid three of the energy sucking things. They exploded after coming in contact with the electro-magnetic shield that was generated by his rolling.

Out of nowhere, unknown fighters began to surround them. They were unlike anything the team had seen before. They looked like crystalline bugs, and none of them looked friendly. They came to make an unbroken circle around the team.

"Alright, we're going to have to split up to take them all. Take the ones closest to you, and watch each others' six. Let's- Argh!" Wolf clutched at his head.

_We are the ultimate existence. You cannot resist us, you must join us._ It seemed as if a thousand mechanical voices were all chanting in his ear._ We are the ultimate existence. You cannot resist us, you must join us._ Somehow they had forced their way into his mind. The voices were making it hard to think, and it was making his brain ache.

"Ung… Attack now!" The team burst into action. He had to say, when it got down to the dirty bits, Sloan was a pretty good pilot. Especially since she had only about a day's worth of training. He shot off after his own group of aliens. They put up a good fight, but in the end they all fell, one by one. For a moment, it reminded him of the old days, under Andross' empire.

He had been roped into that one. His need for both money and revenge had trapped him with a war as his only escape. He remembered what he'd been like near the end, feeling so numb against the numerous murders he was committing. Casualties of war, right? Not to him. There had been but one single pillar of light in that dark time in his life, one single person who had made it all bearable.

"Wolf, are you alright?" Sloan's worried voice crackled through the fighter's console. He shook his head clear, ridding himself of the memories of his wounded life.

"Yes, I'm okay. It seems Pigma doesn't want our company. Did anyone see where those ships came from?"

"They came from the Asteroid Field, in the direction of the energy source." Wolf powered up the Wolfen's engine to full and shot off through the debris again. This time the team stayed close, none of them hampered by power sucking enemies. They could feel the rage radiating from his ship in waves. He had given Pigma a second change, and in return the swine had nearly got them all killed. This time the traitor would die for sure. The encounter with the aliens just before entering the Asteroid Field wasn't the last. They fought through hordes of strange enemies before finding the cause of the phantom energy source.

The base was huge. Gun turrets lined the main hanger entrance and fighters were waiting to try and destroy them. It towered above them and the plated steel had a blue tint to it. Laser and plasma rounds lit up space around the team, and they all dodge wildly to avoid it, with only marginal luck. Wolf knew they couldn't stay. He pulled up sharply until he was parallel with the wall. The others followed, dodging rounds from all directions.

"Holy shit, I thought you said you knew is guy!" Sloan exclaimed as a shot ricochet off of her wing, sending her spinning off towards a wall. She righted herself just in time.

"I thought I did, but it's been a long time. You never know what Pigma will do for money," Wolf answered, a sense of foreboding swelling in his chest. He smelled a rat. This wasn't Pigma's style. He was more the kind who would hide. Make a trap and wait for his victims, this wasn't right.

As they progressed up and around the wall, Wolf began to notice strange crystal growths everywhere. They were attached to all the ships too, jutting out orange and crimson like frozen fire.

The voices were beginning to whisper quietly in the back of his mind again, no matter how hard he tried to push them away. His abilities were weaker than theirs. He hoped not all the voices were coming from the base, it sound as if there were thousands of individuals. They preoccupied him so much that he was caught off guard when a panel burst out from under him, sending off to the side. He rolled to regain himself.

The ship that had burst from the base was familiar to Wolf and Leon. Andross had owned several of them. They were AI fighters in the shape of apes. Something was wrong with this one though. The same crystals that were growing on the base were also growing on the fighter, mostly between its shoulder blades. It attacked on sight, trying to blow away Wolf with a high-powered plasma weapon. None of them had the time or the shields to deal with such a dangerous enemy.

"This way!" Wolf called, before pulling a loop and diving into the base where the machine had exited. As the others disappeared one by one, Sloan wasn't so sure she could pull off a stunt like that .A huge bolt of plasma shot past over top of her. A warning shot, he wouldn't miss again. She took a deep breath before she too looped. Half-way through she found herself staring not at a hole blasted though plate metal, but a solid wall. She squeaked with terror, then rolled to the right. She almost made it. Her left wing caught on the side. The tip ripped off, and the impact sent her crashing through a weak spot in the metal shaft, away from her allies and farther into unfamiliar and hostile territories.

It took several seconds for the brakes to stop her. When she was finally hovering and stationary, she took a few minutes to catch her breath and check for injuries. The four-point harness had knocked the wind out of her as she had crashed through the wall. However, she was in considerably better shape than her fighter she realized as she glanced down at her control panel. Forty percent shields. Looking out the canopy, she saw a few electrical sparks leaping from her wings. A deep gash ran across the top right one.

"Shit. Wolf, I missed. I'm inside the base but I don't see you." She listened. Only static. Something was jamming the transmission. Below her, what looked like an assembly line was moving fast. Huge mechanical arms swung above the line, but they didn't seem to be making anything yet. Deciding that there was no point in waiting around for Wolf to find her, she flew down for a closer look, hoping to find an exit as well.

She didn't see the bugs until it was too late. They were on her in a flash, just like outside the base. In no mood to be dealing with them, she dropped a smart bomb and caught most in the explosion. Charge lasers took care of the rest.

"Not so tough," she smirked. There was suddenly a flash in the corner of her eye, and her head turned toward it as a reflex. She dodged one of the mechanical production line arms as it swung wildly towards her. "What the hell!?" she snapped at no one. She dove and skimmed across the fast moving line. Two more arms crashed down, one in front and one behind. She just barely dodged by the one in front of her, only to be nearly crushed by another. Killing the bugs had been a trigger for the arms to attack.

It was only a matter of time before she would be squashed like a bug by the arms. Her only hope was the shoot at the end of the assembly line that was meant to carry the product to a storage facility. The thick metal doors were open and seemingly waiting for her, left open since the line was still inactive. Her heart was beating in her ears. There was an emotional shock than ran through as the very real threat of her death hit her, then another shock as an arm hit her for real. Twenty percent shields. One more hit and she was done for. At this point, speed was her only ally.

It was hard to pilot the Wolfen during full boost, but it was the only way to stay ahead of the arms. The incredible speed pushed her back in her seat and began to tunnel her vision. Her chest constricted as the assembly doors closed automatically as she came closer. It couldn't end this way, she couldn't just crash.

To her, it felt as though her hands had simply twitched, but the next thing she knew, she had rolled to the side and had just found her way into a broken section of the rusted metal wall. It looked as if the wall hadn't been able to hold up the weight of the strange crystals that had grown on it and had crumbled.

She shivered. She didn't understand where her flight abilities came from. It couldn't just be explained by adrenaline anymore, it felt like a completely separate entity was pushing her to move at the right time. It frightened her sometimes, she didn't want to think that her body wasn't her own.

There were no more enemies around, so she stopped for a moment to catch her breath. She glanced to her left and was horrified to see that her top left wing had been completely destroyed, and the slant hadn't been her imagination. Wolf would kill her.

"Sloan?" Leon's static filled voice burst from the console, startling her. She jumped on the message and replied immediately after she had regained her composure. At this point, she was glad to hear from someone from the team, even if it was Leon.

"Leon, oh thank god. Where are you?"

"I was just about to ask you the same question. How could you possibly get separated? It was a freaking hole! It's not like there were any side passages!" Sloan felt her cheeks burn under the weight of Leon's criticism. Now for the total ridicule.

"I… I missed." A moment of silence.

"What?"

"I missed the damned shaft. I wound up in a room with an assembly line that was trying to kill me. My Wolfen is screwed."

"Ha ha, Wolf is going to kill you." Sloan could hear the laughter in the sing song voice he used to tease her. What a four year old.

"No shit. Hold on, I see open space ahead, give me half a second." The shaft deposited her on the other side of the base. It was a sheltered spot, half encircled by a piece of outer wall that had yet to be completed

She spotted the Wolfens, three tiny, almost unnoticeable dots of red on a black backdrop. She flew slowly, felling like a child that was about to get yelled at for breaking one of daddy's toys. Wolf. However, didn't seem to notice the sorry state of her ship. She wondered if she should say anything, he didn't seem to appreciate apologies. She flew up near him, falling into formation.

"Long time, no see, Sloan," Wolf growled. She winced, he had noticed. "Looks like someone is going to get a course on Wolfen maintenance when we get finished with Pigma, he should be just beyond this wall. Sloan, hang back and stay out of sight, everyone else come out shooting, but don't kill him. That pleasure is reserved for me." The last sentence was filled with such hatred as Wolf powered up his engines to full that Sloan was more than happy to stay back and away from him.

The three shot out of there hiding places and came out blazing, just as they had been instructed. The random blasting lasted for only about thirty seconds though, then they all fell silent. To Sloan, the silence was deafening. Wolf's words finally cracked the silence, but they didn't reassure Sloan. Quite the contrary, they were actually edged with _fear_.

"Pigma, what have you done to yourself?"

XXX

Wolf could feel his blood pressure rise as Sloan limped toward them in her mortally wounded vessel. He was amazed she still had cabin pressure. One wing was completely blown off, and two others weren't far behind. Electricity played across the wings and dangerously close to the engine. Her first mission, and the ship was nearly unsalvageable, that broke even Andrew's record. He kept his anger in check however, he had bigger fish to fry. Besides, their long pull through the base hadn't left them unscathed either.

"Long time, no see, Sloan," he growled as she flew near him. She could almost envision her cowering back under his restrained anger. She could stand up and be tough sometimes, but it didn't take much to start her trembling. What had made her such a whipped puppy? After the mission was over, he would be sure to find out. "Looks like someone is going to get a course on Wolfen maintenance when we get finished with Pigma, he should be just beyond this wall. Sloan, hang back out of sight, everyone else come out shooting, but don't kill him." His lips curled back into a snarl. "That pleasure is reserved for me." He powered up the engine to full and rocketed around the corner.

His eyes zeroed in on the yellow ship that held Pigma and he let loose. So did Leon and Panther. It took Wolf a few seconds for Wolf to realize that his previous assumption was false. The yellow ship that had once held Pigma no longer did. There was no body either, which meant that Wolf hadn't been beaten to the kill. He looked around, scrutinizing every inch of space that he could see through the canopy. He could _feel_ Pigma nearby, but even the felling of Pigma didn't seem right. This whole place set Wolf's nerves on edge.

_Where have you gotten off to, you old swine? _ He thought angrily to himself.

_We are coming._ Wolf jumped as Pigma's voice filled his ears. The voices were getting to him, he decided, he had been here to long. Besides, it couldn't be Pigma, there was no 'we' in his vocabulary. Wolf just had to find him and...

An ear splitting screech of metal cut off his thoughts. A shadow came over his ship, blocking out the naked light of Solar. Above him was a strange metal cylinder made of sections of metal that seemed to be separated by the alien crystal. It moved slowly, taking its time to move in front of Wolf and the team and show them its underside. The sense of foreboding gripped his chest once more, but he wasn't about to lose his cool until all the cards were down.

When the final card did fall it was a slow and laborious decent, signified by the ship fighting to turn over. Wolf strained his eyes to see. The top was covered in a smooth glassy surface of the alien crystal, purple this time, and there was a tiny yellow dot in the middle. Wolf watched as it wriggled around.

It took a few seconds for his brain to comprehend what it was seeing. The blood flowed from Wolf's face, and if anyone had been able to see his complexion through the canopy, they would have said he had gone so pale his fur had turned milk white. He felt like he was about to throw up.

"Pigma, what have you done to yourself?" Pigma was trapped, half buried in the crystal, flailing like a maggot unsuccessful in fleeing a freezing puddle. Most of his face was blackish-purple, like he has sustained a horrible bruise. His right eye was no longer what one could consider an eye, just a tiny white orb. His right arm was shrivel and nearly useless and the same colour of his face.

"We will answer. We have become part of the ultimate existence. The Aparoids." Aparoids, it rung a bell to Wolf, but he couldn't place it.

"But, your body…"

"It is a small price to pay to become the ultimate existence. You cannot stop us, you must join us." Out of nowhere, a three pronged, mechanical hand shot out. Wolf noticed later that it had appeared from below Pigma's Aparoid base. He almost didn't see it, but rolled out of the way just in time. However, he wasn't the target, as he realized a second too late. The arm lashed out towards Sloan's hiding place. She had poked out from behind the barrier to get a look at the enemy. It took her by surprise and closed around her before she could react. Springing back, it held her up above Pigma and turned her over several times, like he was curiously looking over a beautiful river stone.

"A wonderful specimen. You with be a great addition to the ultimate existence," Pigma said in a hollow drone.

"No! Pigma, this is between you and me, she is of no concern to you!"

"The petty feud we shared means nothing now. She will become part of the ultimate existence, as will all life." They all watched as a strange purple substance rapidly ascended the arm, racing towards Sloan. She had been shocked into silence. When her voice returned to her, so did her fear.

"Let me go!" she howled, setting off a charge laser. Since she was facing the inside of the hand, the laser had hit a critical joint in the hand. The fingers flopped open uselessly. Sloan shot back up behind Wolf, as if that would yield some protection against the grotesque creature that was before them.

"You cannot resist us. You must join us." His tone hadn't changed, but he had produce seven more arms, each one armed to the nines with rockets and Gatling guns.

"Everyone retreat! He's not listening … I doubt he's even in there any more." As the rest of the team retreated however, Wolf stood fast.

"Wolf, what the hell are you doing!? Get away from him!" Leon shouted over his com, actually showing some concern for his leader.

"I only need a second…" Wolf focused on Pigma's shattered mind, pushing himself into his head, a place he had been once before and wished he wasn't going to be in again. There was considerably less resistance than last time.

It was unrecognizable, not his own. Instead, it was a jumble of many thousands of minds, with one pillar in the middle. The Queen. She was broadcasting the words that Pigma had continued to repeat throughout their encounter. _We are the ultimate existence…_ He tried to push onward, to figure out their intent.

Suddenly, he was grabbed with a bone jarring amount of mental energy. The Queen had snapped him up from the midst of her collective. A rouge mind that stuck out like a sore thumb. Images began flashing through his head along with their constant edict. Images of destruction, conquest. And their next destination, Cornaria.

He had all he needed to know, so he started to back pedal as fast as he could. The Queen however wasn't as keen on letting him go.

_Stay with us._ She purred in his ear._ Your talents could be well used here._

_Let me go!_ He snarled back.

_But why? I can feel your pain. Let me wash it away for you…_ There was a few seconds of silence, and he felt a ripple move through his mind like a warm summer wind. It felt good. He tried to resist, but his energy seemed to have drained out of him. _Ah, I see why your heart aches. Come with me, with us. Let us find her and bring her into the fold. You don't have to be without her anymore._ Wolf was almost caught in her stupor. He felt himself slipping into her clutches. He almost let go, dropped beneath the water of individuality and slipped into the being of The Queen. Then he remembered who was left, who was still waiting for him. The reason he couldn't left Cornaria fall.

He ripped himself out of The Queen's grasp, launching painfully back into his own mind. He would have a screeching migraine for days after such a messy disentanglement.

The rest of the team was long gone, and Pigma was sitting in front of him in a nearly comatose state. The Queen was still using him as a beacon. He sighed, took one last, disgusted look at the swine, then U-turned and took them most direct route back to Sargasso, as fast as his Wolfen would carry him. There were too many things to do and not enough time to do them in. He couldn't waste a second.

XXX

As Sloan wired up her Wolfen for repairs, she had noticed that the team was unusually quiet, including her. The first reason she suspected was the fact that Wolf had been left behind doing god-knows-what with a homicidal, mutated nut case. What could he possibly have needed from Pigma that he had to be alone to receive? Maybe he had wanted to exact his revenge alone, but that would have been suicidal.

The biggest cause of the silence, however, was Pigma himself. His terrible mutations and mindless blathering hadn't been self imposed. The one big question was what had done such horrible things to his flesh and mind?

Wolf finally returned, fifteen nerve wracking minutes later. His face was grim and dark, his eye clouded by what it had seen. Yet another man that had destroyed himself for the promise of power. Wolf had long ago sworn that he would never meet the same fate.

"Panther, look up everything that has anything to do with the word 'Aparoid'. Now." Panther, then disappeared from the hanger. Sloan looked at him quizzically.

"Aparoid? Where'd you get that word from?"

"Pigma. I think I remember I've hear that before. About thirty years ago, a single Aparoid found its way into the system. Took most of the Cornarian Armada with it when it finally died. It seems that the one was just a scout, searching out territory for the real army that's coming."

"And Pigma told you all this?" Wolf looked at Sloan grimly.

"Pretty much." He saw a spark out of the corner of his eye, and turned his attention abruptly to Sloan's battered Wolfen. A tiny smile appeared on his face. "So, how about we fix this baby up? I always have extra wing parts in stock. Go get some extra paint cans for the spray painter."

"Paint cans? We haven't even started."

"It's always good to have everything you need before you start. Over there." He pointed to a pile of crates on a catwalk. She looked at him for a second, then shrugged and headed over to the metal ladder and ascended.

When she opened the crates, she found lots of paint cans, but they weren't just red and black, there was a neon blue colour in the box too. She grinned, maybe Wolf would let her exchange the red on her ship for blue. He would probably say no, but there was no reason not to ask. She turned in Wolf's direction and opened her mouth to speak.

The words froze hard and cold in her mouth, threatening to suffocate her. She was about to drop the paint, but then she realized that any sound would give away her position, so she held onto the can for dear life. Paralyzed by fear, all she could do was stand there, stupidly, and in plain sight, watching as the loan figure that had suddenly appeared in the hanger advanced casually toward Wolf.

Sector Y had found her.


	7. Chapter 7

It was a foolish request, asking her to get the paint cans before they even started. It would be days before they would get to that. Of course, he didn't have much time to think of a better lie and, as he had hoped, she had trusted him and gone. It had put her safely out of the sight of the suspicious man moving casually towards him.

He was a wolf, middle age probably. His fur was definitely greying, but the well defined muscles showed that he wasn't letting age slow him down. His clothes suggested mercenary, but there was something refined about him. When he got within speaking distance, he offered Wolf a smile.

"Wolf O'Donnell?" It was a carnivorous smile, one that Wolf didn't return. Wolf shot a look at Leon, who promptly left the hanger.

"That's me," he answered shortly. The man looked up at the battered Wolfen.

"Pretty bad shape." His voice was soft, seemingly kind. He turned to Wolf. "Who's the pilot?"

"My new recruit. Got lots of promise, but she's definitely wet behind the ears." The man thought for a moment, them pulled at file folder out from under his arm.

"Your new recruit wouldn't happen to look like this, does she?"

Wolf opened the file folder. It had several pictures of Sloan at different ages, and her birth certificate with her homeworld and birth parents blanked out. It did however have her birthdate on it. "If this is right, she would only be 14, barely." He hid his anger well. Sloan was even younger than he had at first believed. "I don't hire children." He handed the file folder back to the newcomer. The man put his hand up, not accepting the file.

"Keep it." Then he offered Wolf his hand. "You're probably wondering what this is all about. My name is Regis King. I work at the Sector Y Institute for Parentally Challenged children." Wolf looked at him suspiciously for a few seconds, then took his hand and shook it.

"You mean the orphanage." King smiled again.

"You could say that, but you would be partially wrong. You see, at the Sector Y Institute, we take on children other orphanages just and equipped to handle. Drugs, extreme violence, post-traumatic-stress…" His voice trailed off, Wolf guess it was for dramatic effect. "Some of our children have been into gangs, drugs; we even have a few that have seen their parents murdered and the like. Awful stuff goes on inside their heads. Things that need to be sorted out before they can really be accepted by society-"

"Okay, you've played the sympathy card pretty well, is there any real reason for your visit?" Wolf already didn't like him. Long winded people were not his type.

"Right, I guess I do have a habit of rambling. Well, that girl in the folder? She has been with us since she was just a baby. Poor thing, just left on our doorstep by her mother. Not like she couldn't provide for the child, just… she didn't want her. Well, she has taken off from the station, maybe trying to find her mother. That Sloan has always got a blade somewhere, and we're afraid she may try and get revenge. She never got over being left behind" He leaned in towards Wolf, his voice lowering.

"It's not like she doesn't have the training." Wolf, who had long ago decided King was lying, suddenly looked surprised.

"Training?"

"Yeah. Have you ever heard of Red Generation? A company in a distant solar system that is dedicated to the art of war? We usually don't have to worry about there science projects, even the one that escape. There too far away for anything to bother. Well, we think that Red Gen got a hold of her when she was a baby, hardwired her to be a killer. That's why her mother gave her up, she was 'tainted'. So you see, we need to make sure she hasn't suffered any psychological effects from whatever may have happened to her."

"It would be understandable," Wolf reluctantly agreed. King smiled again, this time it wasn't so carnivorous.

"So are you sure she's not here?" Wolf pretended to think hard for a moment.

"Well, you can take a look around if you want, but I'm not sure you'll find anything." King nodded gratefully. Wolf saw a black shape disappear behind the paint crates. Sloan.

"Thank you very much, Mr. O'Donnell."

XXX

Sloan bit her lip as King turned from half-truths to spinning Wolf an extravagant web of lies. To Sloan's horror, it seemed as if Wolf believed him. If she wasn't so terrified of King, she would have jumped up and pleaded with Wolf no to listen.

She dove for the cover of the paint crates when Wolf allowed him to search the station. She knew though, that there was no way of hiding from him. He had hunted to many escapees for him to simply miss her.

The two wolves made pleasant conversation as King slowly made his way around the room, checking in every nook and cranny, slowly gaining on her position. She couldn't go back, not now, with her whole life open to her. She curled up into a tiny ball as King's voice got louder as he drew near. His footsteps pounded in her ears, he was on the ladder, then the catwalk. Coming closer, closer…

King suddenly stopped. Oh, god, she had been found, now to torment her before dragging her out of her hiding place by her hair. Maybe a few quick punches to keep her from fighting back, all out of sight of Wolf, of course.

"Did you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

"Sounded like movement." He took a few steps forward. "Breathing. She might be right here, in this room." Then there was silence. More dramatic pause, but this had a different intention. Sloan thought about running, shooting out of her hiding place and racing for safety. Panther would help her, she was sure of it. Maybe Logan and Wren…

No, that was King's plan. He wanted to scare her into the open, so he didn't have to look for her. He wanted to smoke her out with her own fears. He loved a good hunt. She wasn't about to give him what he wanted. If she was going back, he would have to come and get her.

A shadow passed over her, blocking out the light from the fluorescent bulbs above her. She looked up slowly. There was King's horrible face, his cold yellow eyes, staring down at her. But something was wrong. Instead of the awful, sharp toothed grin of victory at finding his prey, he looked disappointed. She wondered if she should speak, or stand. Before she could do anything, however, Wolf spoke.

"Find anything?" King's eyes glanced over at Wolf, then his face disappeared.

"No, seems it was simply a false alarm. I'm very sorry."

"No problem. The rest of the station might yield more results."

"Yes, if you don't mind I would like to-" King's cell phone rang. He answered it, then listened silently for a few minutes. He sighed as he put it away. "I'm sorry, Mr. O'Donnell, but I'm afraid I must go back to work. I'll have to take you up on your invitation some other time."

"Be my guest." There was some shuffling, more pleasantries exchanged, it felt like hours before King finally left. Sloan waited even longer, to make sure he didn't come back. Neither she nor Wolf spoke for a long time.

"Sloan," Wolf said, so quietly that Sloan almost couldn't hear him. She stood up shakily, still feeling like she was going to throw up. She slowly picked her way among the crates, back down the catwalk, and over to Wolf. Wolf was panting, like he had just run a marathon.

"Wolf, what did you do?"

"You first," he hissed, rounding on her, rage in his eyes. "Tell me who you really are. Everything. Start at the first day of your life you can remember, right up until the day I met you." Sloan sighed, then sat down and started to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. There was no longer any way out of it. She told him about how both her birth parents were still alive, but they had given her up for no reason.

"I've been to their house, but I've never been brave enough to go up and knock the door." She sighed again. "I've seen most of my family. Brothers, two of em', aunts, uncles…" Her voice faded for a moment. Wolf could see she was trying not to choke up. "All of which going about there business as if I didn't exist." Then she told him about Sector Y, and how it wasn't the great place King had described. About the solitary confinement, one meal a day, the guards and the locks and the mysteriously missing children.

"The Warden just calls them accidents, but it's just not right. I know something is going on, but I can't put my finger on it. One night strong, healthy children go to bed, and in the morning their beds are empty." She looked up at Wolf. "That's why I had to get away. I had to escape before they took me, too." After she finished her tale, she wracked her brain for anymore information. Wolf didn't seem so angry any more.

"So, what about this Red Gen thing?" Sloan rolled her eyes.

"King will do and say anything to get the job done. I wouldn't be surprised if the bastard made that all up. He looks like a gentleman, but trust me, he's just the opposite, a vicious beast. We call the guards "King's bulldogs", and King? We have lost of names for him; 'The Hangman' mostly, just cuz' it sounds better than 'Executioner King'." She looked coldly over at Wolf. "Get the picture? King's all about sound proofed rooms and blood."

_So much for rehabilitation,_ Wolf thought. He couldn't help pursuing the question, though.

"Do you have any physical signs that might give him some proof?" Sloan thought for a moment.

"Well… there is one, but I always thought it was from Sector Y." She turned around, rolled down her collar, and parted her hair. There on her neck was a barcode tattooed into her skin. Wolf passed his hand over it once.

"And you don't think this is relevant?" She shook her hair back into place and flipped her collar back up, then pulled up her sleeve, revealing the other barcode.

"See, I have one that I use whenever I want to enter or exit the sleeping quarters on Sector Y. I just figured that was for something else." She was pushing her sleeve back down when a thought occurred to her.

"You don't think… Maybe that's how I can fly so well."

"It's possible. Now, I guess you've held up your end of the bargain." He sat down next to her. His anger had by now completely melted away. He snapped his fingers, and, to Sloan's astonishment, a tiny flame appeared on the end of his index finger.

"Holy hell! How do you do that?"

"To tell you the truth, I'm not sure. Andross showed me how to do it during the war he said I had 'The Blood'. Like I know what that means." He turned to her. "I made you invisible. I don't practice, so it's hard for me to use my abilities a lot, but I figured a few minutes of pain was better than losing you." He smiled weakly, and Sloan saw a different person in Wolf. Not the cold, calculating leader that she had come to know, but a warmer, kinder man. She was about to smile back, when the hanger door opened and he reverted back to the old Wolf.

Sloan let out a breath, it wasn't King. Leon entered the hanger and spotted the two sitting together.

"Am I interrupting something?" he asked.

"Nope," Wolf answered. "We were just about to start on Sloan's Wolfen."

XXX

It took three days of non-stop work to bring the Wolfen back to proper working condition. Wolf had helped her through most of the process, but she didn't need him to help paint. He had of course said no to customizing her Wolfen… for now. So the hanger was empty. Wolf had switched Panther's duties to monitoring news channels for any sign of the Aparoids, Leon was researching Red Generation –after much cursing and muttering under his breath- and Wolf had taken up the Aparoid research.

It made her feel a little useless, simply playing in the paint while everyone else worked, but she was used to that feeling by now. Not worrying about it gave her more time to wonder about Logan and the others. Should she tell them her story, too? Right now, she just couldn't bring herself to do it, not yet. Did she have to tell them? Wren would want to know, Logan should, and Sol? Well, she just didn't know about him…

"Wolf'll get made if you mess up the paint job, so be careful." Sloan jumped and wheeled around. Logan was standing behind her, smiling. "Did I scare you?" Sloan shrugged.

"A little." Logan's smile grew even wider, and Sloan found herself smiling too. His happiness was infectious. She held up the paint sprayer. "Wanna' help?" Logan took it from her and started to spray on the paint. Sloan headed for the second sprayer.

"So, how was your first mission?"

"Terrible. I made a complete idiot out of myself, not to mention that I trashed my Wolfen. Spent the last three days fixing it with Wolf."

"Oh, so that's why I haven't seen you." Sloan paused.

"You've been looking for me?" Logan shrugged.

"Yeah, me and Wren. She wants to know if you want a pair of pants she has."

"What?"

"Come on, Sloan, in the whole time you've been here, you've only worn two outfits. It's kinda' obvious that you need new clothes." Logan noticed Sloan's cheeks go red, so he pushed on. "Don't be ashamed. There are lots of people here who started like that. Take… Asher, for example. You know, the guy who Muriel was yelling at the day you came?"

"Right."

"Well, when he came, all he had were the clothes on his back, the track marks in his arm, and a rap sheet as long as my leg. But now, he's doing really good. He's got a job and everything. Wren told me that he was looking for an apartment, but I don't think that's a good idea. He's still kinda' naïve and… okay, maybe that's not the _best_ comparison to you." He smiled sheepishly. "You're so mature, and… well." There was silence for a few minutes. Sloan desperately wanted to change the subject.

"Tell me about Sol."

"What's to tell? He's 17, keeps to himself. Oh, and I'm told he likes Wren, which is a problem, since Asher likes Wren, and, well, Asher's crazy… so." He stopped, he was going on again. "Sol's just Sol."

"But don't you remember that day when Star Fox attacked? He walked right past those bodies like he couldn't see them!" Logan made a face.

"That's because he couldn't. Sol's completely blind, has been since before we knew him." This took Sloan off guard.

"What? But what about the ship? The fighter I saw him with that first day?"

"All for show. He doesn't want people to know he's blind." Logan took a deep breath, then spoke again in the best clam, quiet Sol impression he could muster. "The only thing I hate more than pity is fake pity." Sloan grimaced.

"Oh, I get it. But it's so hard to tell."

"Yeah, his ears are super-sensitive to compensate. If there's noise, he can see just fine. It's like echo-location, I think. There, all done." He put the sprayer can down and motioned Sloan to follow him. She had stopped working and hadn't even noticed as Logan finished the fighter. "So, how about the pants?"

"Why not?" It didn't take too long to get to his room, not long enough to wrap her head around everything. Her head was spinning from all this new information. Wolf was some kind of wizard, Sol had just got even stranger, and Asher? She didn't even want to talk about that. On the way, she noticed that there were a lot of people engaged in quiet muttering amongst themselves, which quickly ceased once Sloan came near. She felt a rock fall into the pit of her stomach. "What's all this about," she asked.

"No clue, I'm not really one for gossip. Something probably leaked about your mission and they don't want to get in trouble by talking about it." Sloan nodded weakly. It seemed that King had spread it around that Sloan was a ticking time bomb, trained and ready to kill. The crowd parted politely for Sloan. Logan seemed confused.

"Well, here we are, come on in." Logan opened the door and stepped back to let Sloan inside. "It's not much, but it's home." Logan was right, it definitely wasn't much. The walls were grey and bare besides the few colourful band posters Logan had hung up. It had two rooms, the main one and the bathroom, and no furniture except a steel desk with matching chair and a simple bed. A replicator was installed in the wall. He walked over to the bed and grabbed a plastic bag.

"There's a shirt in there too. You can try them on in the bathroom." Sloan had to roll up the pants, since she was on the short side and Wren was impossibly tall, and Logan's shirt was kind of baggy, but they didn't have any holes in them at all, and they were clean. A definite improvement.

"Thanks," she said as she left the bathroom, throwing Luther's windbreaker back over her shoulders. As she did, her control bracelet suddenly started beeping. She looked at it for a second, confused, then remembered what Wolf had said when he had explained the other features the day before. It was a comm. too. She pressed the button that was beeping.

"Sloan, where are you," Wolf's angry voice came through the comm.

"Down in-"

"It doesn't matter, just back to the Wolfen hanger, now!" Sloan flashed a glance at Logan, who smiled.

"Good luck, try not to get yourself killed." Funny. She broke for the hanger. It only took a few minutes, since the crowd split for her like she was some angel of death, and they were trying to stay as far out of her way as possible. King had played the fear card well. Wolf was waiting impatiently near his Wolfen.

"What took you so long?" he snapped. She didn't bother to answer, instead she wondered what had made him so anxious.

"What's up, boss? Where we goin'?"

"Cornaria. The Aparoids have attacked the capital." Sloan's heart lurched. Vex lived in the sea-side front in Cornaria City. She could only hope that he was out of the city. From what she had heard from him, he was often on Macbeth for concerts, as his piano music was popular there. Leon wasn't as worried.

"I don't see why you don't want it to burn! Fox McCloud lives there!"

"In case you hadn't noticed, genius, he's not the only one. Let's go!" He turned sharply to Sloan and threw her a blaster. "Think you can figure it out?"

"I'm sure of it, cold blooded killer that I am." Sloan shouldered the blaster, then looked at Panther, who returned her gaze sadly. The newscast must have produced some frightening images to prompt his next statement.

"Are you ready to see what an Aparoid can do to living flesh?"


	8. Chapter 8

Authors Note Okay, before you start I just wanted to say sorry to all the people who were reading my story before. I didn't noticed that for some reason, the icon I was using to mark point of view was taken out by the document manager, that's all fixed, plus some stupid mistakes in chapter 6. Enjoy!

At Wolf's speed, it took only several hours to reach Cornaria. Not a bad time for crossing nearly an entire solar system. Sloan was thinking about Wolf. His weird powers had, for the moment, taken a back seat in her mind to his currently riled nature. He hid his true emotions well, but no one was perfect and she had trained herself to spot even the slightest change in anyone. It had been a useful skill back on the station in that it had save her from many a swing aimed at her head.

There was always a flash in Wolf's face where you could see what he was thinking. She had noticed it first when she had entered the hanger. It hadn't been the crack in his armour that had scared her, but what the crack had shown her. She had got a glimpse of _fear_ in his eyes. Until then, she didn't think hecouldbe afraid. The thought was even more foreign and unbelievable than the thought of Wolf making fire out of thin air or turning her invisible.

She was jaunted out of her thoughts by the turbulence of the atmosphere. It wasn't too heavy, but enough to keep her mind on the controls. The sight that presented itself to her once she broke the cloud layer just behind Panther was that of total chaos. Buildings had been bombed out, cars and things were on fire. Bodies lay everywhere, and not all were in military uniform. Many civilians lay among the wreckage of the once great Corneria city. Aparoids crawled all over the place. Most of them looked like bugs, but there were a few in the sky that resembled birds. They would have been graceful if Sloan hadn't known there true intent.

"Hey, Panther. Look down there. Those Aparoids look like people," Sloan observed. She heard Panther draw a heavy breath.

"Those aren't Aparoids that look like people, they _are_ people. The Aparoids have infected them and now they're being controlled. I saw it happen on a news cast. At first I thought it was eating them, but no." Sloan shivered. She didn't know which was worse, being eaten by a weird cyborg bug, or becoming one.

"I'll be careful."

"Make sure you do."

"Alright. Leon, take Sloan and see if you can take out the Aparoid Hatchers around the city. Panther, we'll take out the jammers." Wolf was firing orders as soon as Panther had finished with her. "And Sloan," he called as they were flying off. "Don't get stupid on us." Sloan rolled her eyes.

"If that means don't get eaten by the huge creepy bugs, don't worry, I'm on it."

"Just don't get cocky, kid" The two pairs then parted ways. Sloan simply followed the leader as Leon looked for a place to set down. She could tell by the screaming silence that Leon was not pleased to have her as baggage. There was a small park not to far away, and Leon chose that spot to land. Sloan had no objections.

As she set down an exited the cockpit, she noticed that she had been at this park before, but it seemed different somehow, and not because of the dismembered city behind it. It was different because this time there were no marshals breathing down her neck, it was just her and Leon. It would have felt liberating if not for the weight of her current mission.

From his cockpit Leon produced his own private sniper rifle. A gasoline driven _Mach 3_. One of the very best. Sloan pulled the blaster out of her own ship and she caught Leon giving her a look that said: _My toy is better than your toy._ Sloan returned his with one that said: _Mine can still kill you._ Leon's evil little grin turned into a scowl, and he turned away and started to leave.

"Hey!" Sloan called, "where are you going?"

"To do my job. You should try it sometime." He pointed in some random direction. "Look for some Hatchers. I'm going this way, you go that way."

"But shouldn't we stay together? I don't even know what a Hatcher looks like." Leon pulled out a data pad and threw it to her. On it was a picture of an orange, bulbous thing stuck to a wall and spewing out an Aparoid every few seconds.

"Merry Christmas." A hop to some wreckage, some impossible jumps, and he was on a rooftop and gone, leaving Sloan to herself in a war zone. She could feel a special kind of loathing bubble up, one she had only felt for a few people back in Sector Y. The Warden, King, and the Marshals. Leon had taken a place in her hatred no one outside Sector Y had ever managed to take.

"Bastard." She sat down next to her Wolfen and examined her Blaster. Safety catch, off. Pretty simple, pull the trigger and it shoots, not cartridges to load and the nuclear power source lasts forever. And, if she remembered correctly… that's right, charge laser. She looked in the direction Leon had pointed her in. Nothing but fire and bodies. She got to her feet and started towards the city._ Something tells this was _not _what Wolf had in mind._

Blaster at the ready, she slowly moved around a corner. Nothing. She looked up and could see the jammers in the sky. She was pretty sure that she could see Leon hopping about the rooftops and decorating everything that moved with a nice red pattern and a hole in the head. He decorated anything that didn't move, too. Probably on the grounds that it might move sometime in the future. Sloan shook her head, but she noticed that he did have one huge advantage over her, even if he was a few bricks short of a load. Height. She looked around. There was a hotel nearby, and the fire escape was down. One more good look for danger, then she headed for the escape.

There still wasn't much to see. Leon was really stealing the show. There were huge amounts of dead Aparoids in the area.

"Must mean there's a Hatcher nearby," She thought out loud. "Maybe more than one."

"And what would you be doing worrying about a thing like that when you should be evacuating?" Sloan had let her Blaster fall to her hip. She cursed herself as she tried to bring it to bear against the voice. A sudden pain in her hand sent the weapon flying. She clutched at her hand and swore. There was a burn mark across her hand below her thumb and the knuckle of her index finger. It wasn't bad as it had been only to disarm.

"Shit," she hissed, looking up to see her attacker. The reaction her body had when she saw him was like when she had seen King. She froze, and any insults she might have had for him froze with her.

He was half buried in shadow, hardly moving at all. His burning green eyes were locked on her, with only a glance towards Leon. He had moved away to another section of the city, nowhere near close enough to come to her aid. Not like he would save her anyways. Fox McCloud looked down at Sloan's control bracelet and sighed.

"I was hoping Falco was wrong, but I guess it's true, Wolf really hired a child." This fired Sloan up a little bit.

"I'm not a child," Sloan spat before she could stop herself.

"Yeah? Then just how old are you?" Sloan said nothing this time. It only took a few more questions for Fox to figure out Sloan's mouth was shut. Fox called for someone named Peppy to get ready to transport a prisoner as soon as the jammers were down, then he sat back a little and simply waited. _Some great hero you are,_ Sloan thought. There was silence for a few moments, then,

"You must be a pretty good pilot for Wolf to notice you." Sloan thought, for a moment, then decided to play this game. She shrugged.

"I'm pretty good." Fox laughed a little.

"Yeah, so what did Wolf promise you to get you to throw away your childhood for him?"

_Childhood? What's a childhood? I gotta' get me one a' those._ Sloan thought sarcastically.

"Nothing."

"Nothing? So what are you doing this for, a summer project? Were you born under a rock? Haven't you heard of the things he's done? He kills people for money."

"Don't be dramatic. In case you hadn't noticed, so do you!"

"I save people. If I have to kill the bad guys to do that, then I guess that's what I have to do, but I try not to. Wolf _enjoys_ killing people."

"You're wrong!" Sloan burst out. She could let his line-walking bullshit go, but not what he said about Wolf. She was about to go on when the scream of an engine overtook them both. Sloan knew what it was. She threw herself out of the way just as the Wolfen let its guns loose on Fox. He dodged expertly and landed on his feet. Sloan had landed on her face, but she was right next to her Blaster. She took it and ran without bothering to see who had saved her, and kept running until she was out of Fox's range.

"Some one's always watching me," she whispered in no one once in the safety of a bombed out apartment building she had found refuge in. She was about to move on when she heard a strange shifting noise, a thud as if something had fallen to the ground, and the sound of metallic legs unwrapping from a metal body. She turned, and behind her was a small Aparoid and a Hatcher working to make another one. The Aparoid attacked her on sight, but it only took one blast to kill it. The Hatcher was more difficult, it took a couple charged blasts before it to succumb to her weapon.

"One down, god knows how many to go." Sloan fell against the wall and slid down it, wondering what to do next. The map projection from her bracelet was patchy and practically useless thanks to the jammers, and she couldn't get a hold of Wolf or anyone else. She wondered if the soldiers sent to defend the city had turned out as lost and alone as she felt. She couldn't find the enemy, and she could only pray that they couldn't find her.

She leaned her head back to think. Just as it touched the brick, warmed by the high, bright sun, two particular skyscrapers came into view. They were connected by a walkway about ten feet wide. Sloan recognized them immediately. They were the buildings where her mother allegedly worked. Somehow, they had escaped damage.

It gave her a thought. What if her parents' home had been destroyed? Someone had been killed? It gave her a perverted sort of pleasure to think that. Kings words of her need for revenge for her abandonment popped back into her head, and she tried to shake the thought. She didn't want them dead. She wasn't like that. Besides, she didn't care what happened to them. They might be blood, but they weren't her family.

Still, she had nothing better to do, so she got to her feet and headed in the direction of the home. It wasn't too hard to find, they lived in the one of the only gated community that was supposed to keep out the "riff-raff". It didn't work very well since she had been able to scale the wall several times.

There was no need this time though. It had been demolished. Trees were uprooted and there were still more bodies. She found loads of Aparoids, the little ones she called Mark 1's. They skittered around quickly and looked like ants. Three huge ones were also walking around that looked more like crabs except no claws and deserved the name Juggernauts. There were three Hatchers too. Sloan ducked behind some rubble and charged up her Blaster.

She carefully aimed at a Juggernaut, and was about to take her shot when something came shooting out of a partially flattened building. She trained her gun on it, but dropped it when she realized it was a person. A middle aged man that had been hiding in the rubble. He had seen her and, in his terrified frenzy, saw only her Blaster and rushed to find protection in it.

"No!" she hissed quietly, trying to wave him off. "No, they'll see you!" He was halfway to her position when a Juggernaut caught his movement and turned. A single blast was all it took to send the man to the ground. Sloan could see he was dead. She was about to move away, when she noticed one of the Mark 1's scuttling over to the body.

Confused, she watched from a safe distance. It stood over the body and a proboscis slowly descended from its mouth toward the man's chest. It curve slightly as it pressed against the man's skin, then it pierced through and into his heart. At first nothing happened, but then the body began to jerk a little, like electric pulses running though his body. The body came to rest again for a few seconds, then his eyes fluttered and his body tensed. Sloan jerked back in fright and revulsion as his eyes flew open, still with terror in his eyes. There was confusion for a moment, then his eyes fell on the Aparoid on his chest and there was fresh terror. He started screaming, but only for a moment. Then he choked on his own breath and fell still.

He didn't move again. The Aparoid removed its proboscis and stepped off. Sloan wanted to run, it had been a stupid idea to come and see her home. She was glad the dead man was no one she knew. At least, she was pretty sure he was dead. His eyes had moved, and he had screamed, so maybe he was still alive. She waited for the Aparoid to move away before crawling slowly around the rock to the man. She checked his pulse. There was nothing. For some reason he was cold, though he had only been dead for a few minutes. There was a snap of a twig behind her, and she turned around to scan the trees that had not been demolished. She couldn't see anything, so she turned back to the body.

She gasped. The man's eyes were open, grey and cold. His hand snapped up and grabbed a hold of her.

"We are the ultimate existence. You cannot resist us. You must join us." She jerked away from him, trying to stand. He pushed her so she fell of balance as he stood. She tried to shoot him, but he knocked the gun out of her hands. The Aparoids took notice of the new recruit and his struggling prize. A Juggernaut began to advance towards them, followed closely by a Mark 1. She tried to pull out of the man's iron grip, but she was stuck. It vaguely reminded her of King's grip, but he would squeeze and twist until he cut the circulation off to your hand and almost broke your arm. Her eyes were wild with fear. The Juggernaut was charging up its cannon-like weapon.

"Let me go!"

"You must be brought into the fold. You must become us."

"No! I, I…" She couldn't do it. Scream for help. She had never in all her life. Another one of Sector Y's unwritten rules. You take your punishment as it comes. She closed her eyes, waiting for the searing ball of plasma to hit her. Instead. She heard a gunshot and felt something hit her, wrapping around her and throwing her wide of the Juggernaut's shot. She hit the ground hard, the weight of a whole other person on her. There were more gunshots. The Aparoids began to return fire. Sloan tried to get up and see what was happening, but she was pinned to the ground. When she tried to struggled, she heard an unfamiliar male voice snarl.

"Quit movin', kid!" After the gunfire died a bit, the man grabbed her arm and hauled her to her feet. He broke for the trees and Sloan was forced to follow. After reaching cover, the man pushed her to the ground. She got a face full of dirt and cedar smell. She heard a crunching next to her, and she turned to look at her saviour. A blue avian had levelled a Blaster at the scene beyond the trees, looking for anything that moved.

His eyes were shielded by a pair of expensive looking shades, and his slightly overgrown head feathers were tied back out of his face by a bandana. Finally, after a few seconds that seemingly took hours to pass, he dropped his Blaster to his side and looked at Sloan, peeling off the shades to reveal icy, grey-blue eyes that almost made her shiver.

"An' jus' what the hell are you doing here!?" he barked. Same question as Fox, not nearly as much tact.

"I… uh…" She stared stupidly up at the man, who was shaking his head angrily and eyeing her control bracelet.

"Dammit, I told Fox to look for you, but no-o-o-o, he has to go off and be some kind of freaking hero. God damn him." He snatched up Sloan's arm again and dragged her to her feet. This had happened to her way to many times on Sector Y to let this person drag her around. Given a sudden burst of strength by her anger, she ripped her arm out of the avian's grip.

"How about you stop dragging me around like I'm some kind of _dog_ and start with telling me your name." The cold eyes rounded on her.

"And why should I do that? In case you hadn't noticed I'm the one with the gun."

"Are you threatening me? I thought you were the good guys." She could tell by the Star Fox badge pinned to his worn biker jacket. He snorted, then reared his head back in obnoxious laughter. Sloan could tell he wasn't laughing with her. When he had finally calmed down and wiped the tears from his eyes, he stared at her again.

"Good guys? I'm more like you than Fox."

"In that case, how's about we start all over again." She held out her hand. "I'm Sloan."

"Sloan?" Falco prompted.

"No last name to give you."

"Well, in that case, I'm just Falco," he said as he reached out and took her hand to shake it. Sloan coughed, then looked up at the man. How could she not have realized it before?

"F-falco?! Falco Lombardi!? You've got to be kidding me! I suspected it before but… wow." Falco seemed confused.

"You know me?"

"Know you? Where I come from, anyone knows you! Everyone wants to _be _you!" And it was true. Everyone in Sector Y knew the name Falco Lombardi. He had gone from running the streets and shooting drugs to saving a solar system. Going from basically the position of the average Institute prisoner to a hero, there wasn't a better person to admire. Falco grinned.

"Really? So I'm a celebrity. That's cool." He looked around.

"No Aparoids around, lets go find some better cover."

"No, I gotta' go see something. I came all this way, I can't just leave." Falco shrugged, then picked up his Blaster.

"Don't forget to pick up your gun on the way."

The house Sloan was looking for wasn't too far into the community. As she went farther in, she realized that the Aparoids had just begun systematically destroying everything. They had just begun and nowhere near getting to the houses in the middle of the gated community. She stepped to the front walk, not bothering to look at the name on the mailbox. She knew what it was, even if it wasn't hers.

The house was white with a dark roof. It was big enough to be a mansion. Two huge bay windows were placed on either side of the door, and it made her feel as if the house was watching her. Falco seemed confused, but he said nothing as Sloan opened the wrought iron gate and walked up to the door, the walk split the front yard, which was a blanket of perfectly manicured lawn. She stepped up to one of the windows. The whole place was deserted. She tried the door. Locked.

Moving around the back of the house, a place she'd never been before, she was presented with the beauty of an artificial water garden in the middle of a carefully planted garden. It was split by several stone walkways and in the middle was a black metal garden table and four chairs with black and white striped cousins.

_Wow_, Sloan thought, _I could have lived here._

"Don't mind me asking, but why are we here?" Sloan jumped, she had forgotten all about Falco.

"Um, no reason, I just…." _Wanted to see what I was missing_. "Let's go."

On the way out, Falco glanced at the mailbox.

"So, who are the… Dykstras?" he asked. Sloan felt a lump in her throat when she heard the name. She wanted it so badly.

"I don't really know."

"Oh, so you just saw there home and thought it was nice so you decided to take a peek. Do I look like I hatched yesterday?" Sloan looked away. What could she tell him? Thankfully, she didn't have to tell him anything, because just then a red flagship went screaming overhead. Aparoid crystal spires were all over it.

"Hey," Falco said suspiciously. "I've seen that ship before." No sooner had the worlds left his mouth than his comm. came cracking to life.

"Falco, get to your Arwing now! The Aparoids have taken over General Pepper flagship, and the General's still inside!"


	9. Chapter 9

(AN) Okay, I'm not too sure if I used too much dialogue at the end of this chapter, so tell me what you think. Enjoy!

Destroying the Jammers was little more than a chore for Wolf, so he was focused on something much more important. He flew low over a residential area, populated by bungalows of assorted colours, mostly white and red. Wolf focused on one house in particular, a white house that actually was the home in the background of the picture he carried. He braked near it, looking for any sign of movement or damage. He sighed with relief, he could find he could find no damage, and took no movement as a sign that that the occupants had evacuated. He did notice, however, that there was something taped to the door. Wolf growled low. He had to get at it without Panther seeing.

"What is it, Wolf?" Panther asked, flying slowly up and breaking next to him. Their comms. worked because they were in such close proximity to one another.

"Nothing," Wolf grumbled back.

"Do you think that Leon is taking care of Sloan?"

_There is no way in hell. She's probably wandering around aimlessly right now._ "They're probably fine." Then an idea struck Wolf. "Do you want to check on her?"

"If I can find her. Are you sure you don't need a wingman?"

"I'll be fine." He waited for Panther to get a safe distance away before landing.

It was eerie, being back in the suburb without the sound of children playing or people talking or laughing, or any sound at all except the wind rustling though the trees. He pushed the gate open and strode into the yard. There were children's toys lying forgotten on the lawn as if their owners had left in a hurry without time to clean them up. A swing creaked as it swung back and forth in the wind. He walked up to the white door. There was an envelope taped to it. He pulled it off and read the note inside:

_Hey baby. Don't worry about us. We're at your parent's house. What's going on? No one will tell us anything. Hope you're okay. _

_Love, Bristol_

_P.S. Please don't do anything rash, just come home in one piece._

The 'Love, Bristol' part was framed by a heart drawn quickly in blue pen like the rest of the note. Wolf let out another breath and slipped the note into his coat's inside pocket, next to the picture. So they were alright. He felt like leaving right then. The city was no longer his concern. He jogged back to the Wolfen and was in the air just as he saw Panther flying a few laps around a certain hotel, and then flying back.

"I can't believe him!" He snarled when he came back into comm. range. "He just left her by herself. When I found her, Fox had her at gun point!"

"What?" Wolf couldn't believe Leon would do that. He didn't expect him to stay with her the whole time, but leaving her in the hands of the enemy? That was treasonous in Wolf's eyes. Still, he doubted Leon had known Fox had her.

"Well, it's a good thing you sent me looking for her when you did."

"Where did she go? Did you see?"

"She shot off into some destroyed buildings. I kept Fox busy, so he didn't see where she went. Wolf, you have to do something about Leon. She could have been killed."

"You don't think I realize that? Trust me, I'll handle him. Let's get those Jammers." Wolf rolled to the side and boosted off. Panther followed.

It wasn't long before Wolf found a Jammer. It turned its demon-like, four pointed body to regard him, lazily opening its single eye, then fired a barrage of laser rings at him. Dodging them was simple, and, lining it up in his sights, took it down with no trouble. Same with the second, and the third. It wasn't until the fourth fell that Wolf began to hear the voice he had been dreading.

_Wolf. I knew you would return. Have you reconsidered my gracious offer?_

_Yeah, that's why I'm blowing Aparoids out of the sky left right and center._

_I was hoping you were only trying to get my attention. I see you are more strong willed than most organics. Anyone else would have fallen to me long ago._

_I've had some practice. If you'll excuse me, I have some more Aparoids to kill._

_Of course. In fact, I have some business of my own to attend to. Your Sloan is quite the nosey girl, going where she doesn't belong._ Wolf stopped attacking the Jammers and focused on the Aparoid Queen for the first time.

_What?_

_Ah, I seem to have your attention. It seems Sloan has just stumbled into an area thick with Aparoids. She has seen first hand how we bring you organics into the fold, and now she will- Augh!_ The Queen's cry of pain brought a smile to Wolf's face.

_Sound's to me like Sloan isn't going down without a fight._

_I will return!_ And her voice was gone from his mind. Wolf shook his head and laughed a little, then went back to his business. By the time he had finished with the Jammers, the note had crawled back into his mind. He wanted to take it out and see it again. He wanted to call and make sure everything was okay, but he couldn't risk it. So instead he simply flew over the city, on silent watch, trying to gather his team back together. Panther was in comm. range. Wolf directed him to find Leon.

"We're leaving. I'll round up Sloan."

"Got it." Wolf banked away from him and scanned the streets for anything that might be Sloan. He knew it was a needle in a haystack search though. How was he supposed to find a person dressed all in black in amongst a pile of charred black rubble that used to be a city? He remembered Sloan's story, how her family lived in the well-to-do neighbourhood, maybe she had retreated there to find some familiar ground. Though he doubted there would be anything left familiar. He turned to head for the more upscale residential areas.

What he saw on the turn was a white flash out of the corner of his eye. He turned his head and saw Fox standing on a roof top, surrounded by Aparoids and debris that had probably come from an Arwing. He made a break for the fire escape and was blocked by flying Aparoids. He stepped backwards slowly, looking around desperately. Wolf growled angrily.

_How dare you take my prey!_

_But don't you want him dead? I've seen what he did, what he took from you._ The Queen's voice appeared in his mind again.

"You a pitiful sight, pup," Wolf said to Fox, finding an unencrypted comm. channel.

"A Wolfen? Wolf!" Fox yelped in surprise as Wolf started shooting up the roof top, destroying the Aparoids and barely missing Fox, who race to the edge in an attempted to get out of the way. A charge laser landed to close to him and sent him flying over the edge to what would certainly be his death. Wolf dove and caught him on his wing. Fox was stunned.

"Wolf, what are you doing here?"

"You're the one who dropped in unannounced. If anyone's going to tan your hide, it going to be me."

"Wolf…"

"Wipe that stupid look of your mug, we're not done yet. Get the plasma cannon out from under my wing and let's kill some bugs." Fox nodded, then grabbed the weapon that was tucked underneath the wing. "You're on my Wolfen Fox, don't disappoint me."

"Don't worry about him," Panther chuckled, coming into comm. range with Leon by his side. "You're like Wolf's surrogate gun." Leon wasn't so welcoming of Fox.

"Go ahead and make a blunder, and you'll end up as a target." They came up behind Wolf and banked in opposite directions, heading off for the hordes of bugs that had launched from the city and came to engage them.

_So many Aparoids, Madame Queen is getting mad at Master Wolf, now isn't she?_ Wolf though with a smile.

_Wolf, why do you make these things so hard? You know you can't kill him yourself. Let me do it for you._

_I'd rather help him kill you._ The Queen made an exasperated sound.

_Then you've forced my hand._ Wolf's body lurched as an image flooded into his mind.

It was a young woman in her mid-teens. She was wearing a private school uniform, a simple black jacket and pleated skirt with a white shirt and red tie. Her fur was grey, and she had shoulder length dark hair. Her purple eyes were bright with life, and she was laughing. Wolf felt as though his heart was tearing at the memory.

"Kia," Wolf breathed. He fought back the tears that came with the memory. This was no time to show his weakness. But there was no way, he knew, to hide his feelings from The Queen.

_This is what he took from you! You were just discovering your family. She was the only one of them you were brave enough to talk to. It felt so good to know someone who shared your blood, even if your lives had taken such different terns. Then he took that away from you. He murdered your sister! _ Wolf looked out his canopy to see Fox pounding on the flying Aparoids with the Plasma Cannon. There was anger bubbling in his chest, but he wasn't sure if it was directed at the man on his wing trying desperately to fight off the bugs, or the Queen.

The memory had taken a hold of him. All he could think of was that night. Seeing that glint as Fox pulled what he was sure had been a concealed weapon. Him watching uselessly as his sister jump in his way. Her scream. The blood… the pain…

_So if I kill him and join you, you'll bring her back?_

_Yes._ Wolf couldn't keep himself from wrestling with the idea. He wanted to kill him so badly, but the feeling was still there. That feeling of something holding him back. And what would happen after, when Kia was back? They would both be mind slaves to the Aparoid Queen. That couldn't happen.

_Maybe your still watching, Kia, and you don't want me to kill him? That's why I can't bring myself to do it._ The Queen heard that thought loud and clear.

_No, Wolf, I…Wolf, he murdered your sister right in front of you. He maimed you for life. Don't you want to revenge?_

_I want you dead much more. I'll get revenge on my own terms._ And he pushed her unceremoniously out of his mind.

"Fox, one of these monsters has a lock on me, take them out."

"I got it!"

"Oh no, one of my favourite cafés got totalled. When this is all done, I want a first class meal." Panther said randomly.

"Priorities, Panther!" Wolf growled. Leon shot past just under Fox's cannon fire, chasing after a group of Aparoids that he was having trouble destroying.

"Ugly bugs. It's no fun fighting unshakable enemies."

"You prefer the ones that curl up in the corner and whimper instead of fighting back, huh?" Panther said, already knowing the answer to his question. More homing Aparoids seemed to appear every time they passed by a building.

"They seem like sturdy little monsters don't they?" _I'll give you that much._ There was no answer from The Queen. It seemed the time for talk was over. They rounded a corner and were met with a large group of homing Aparoids. They were so close together that Fox had no trouble taking them down. They did one last sweep of the city, just to clean things up, then Wolf braked above the Fluorite Museum.

"Nicely done Fox." Fox nodded and smiled. He was about to replace the cannon in its original position when Rob's voice came over the comm.

"Unknown vessel approaching at high speeds."

"Another enemy?" Wolf bristled. He had a bad feeling about this, and The Queen's words did little to reassure him.

_I have been patient with you, but now it's time you see what happens when someone resists absolute power._

"Wait, that silhouette..." Peppy said slowly. "That's the general's flagship!" A blue ship came speeding towards them. It was vaguely arrow shaped, with four wings, a pair near the cockpit and a pair near the engine. It was covered in Aparoid crystals. Pepper's laboured voice came through the comms of the two teams. You could see his body though the canopy. It was locked into a lying position, partially covered in Aparoid crystals and being used as the ship's new and unwilling control center.

"Is that you Fox? Too late. The Aparoids… my body is… no longer under my control." As he spoke, the ship began to modify itself as it manoeuvred around buildings and what was left of the Skyways. The wings moved until they loosely resembled arms and legs. Crystals grew along them, making cannon-like structures at the ends.

"This is my final request," General Pepper managed to choke out. "Destroy this ship, destroy me!"

"Don't say that!" Fox yelled, still in disbelief. "I can't!"

"You would make me an accomplice to these fiends?" Pepper hissed.

"That's the truth of it Fox, accept it," Wolf told him, his tone even.

"Why?" Fox groaned. "Why it this happening? No!" The last part was more a cry of surprise than anything else as Pepper suddenly rushed them, just missing as he flew over top of them.

"My body has betrayed me. Take me out," Pepper's voice was calm, he had already accepted the idea of his demise, now all he needed was for Fox to accept it too. "Don't hesitate Fox."

"You have to do it Fox," Wolf urged him. The flagship had curled up about as well as an automaton like itself could, and he could see a black sphere cradled in its arms, charging up.

"Fox," Slippy squeaked, "general, oh, what am I supposed to do?"

"Don't worry, just fire." Fox hesitated for only a moment more, then levelled the cannon and started to blast away at the Aparoid. It resisted for a short time, then went flying backwards, the dark sphere dissipating as it flew.

"That's the way to do it. Give it you all." Wolf thought it was strange, him coaching his worst enemy. He thought it was even stranger that Fox even needed his help. For being Lylat's hero and defender, he seemed very slow to act. The flagship came flying back, curled up for another moment then exploded outwards, sending projectiles out in all directions.

"Fox, the missiles!"

"We'll get them!" Sloan's voice was full of energy and excitement at finally being useful. She boosted into the fray and took down the first wave of missiles. The Aparoid let loose another volley and an Arwing went rocketing over top of her.

"You don't get to have all the fun!"

"Falco? Is that you?" Fox asked.

"Sloan! Where the hell have you been!"

"Wolf, god do I have something to tell you!"

"Save it, kid, we've got work to do!" Falco reminded her as he shot past after an Aparoid. Sloan followed him. The Aparoid flagship shot forward, rearing back about six feet from the Wolfen. Fox pounded on it as it was about to bring its arm down on the two of them.

"Gah," Pepper hissed. "I never thought I'd be fighting you." Fox aimed for the huge unprotected crystal on its top and fired. It flew back again, a huge crack splitting through the hull and crystal.

"That's it Fox," Peppy whooped. "Keep it up, we may be able to damage just the machinery."

"Let me die in battle!" Pepper growled as the Aparoid came flying back for another round. It was weak, however, and couldn't stand up to the barrage.

The explosion was quite the sight. Aparoid crystal blew off in all directions, white light reflected off of glass skyscrapers and made it all the brighter. It went down as blazing flames exploded from below plates of crystal. They all watched in horror as he fell from the sky. Everyone except Peppy.

"General Pepper!" In a flash he was below the ship, propping it up and saving it from complete destruction. It hit the ground hard and skidded, leaving a huge gash in the land. The two just barely missed the Communications Tower.

"Peppy, what have you done," Pepper sighed.

"Well, looks like I'll never make retirement now." He groaned. "Fox, call the Med Corps. Either way, my duty's done." Slippy frantically flew down to check if he was okay. Wolf turned and flew back to the Command Center in the center of the city and set down, followed by Sloan and Falco. Wolf and Fox sat in silence for a little while.

"I owe you my life," Fox said gratefully.

"I told you, I didn't come to save you," Wolf answered.

"Even so." They fell back into silence.

"So how long are you going to take up space on my wing?"

"Oh, right." He jumped down just as Sloan and Falco scampered up onto the Command Center with them.

"Wolf! You won't believe what I saw!" Sloan told him.

"Fox, you aren't gunna' believe this." Falco looked a little rattled.

"Well? What's so important," Wolf growled.

"Okay, I went out to that hoity-toity neighbourhood, right? And that place was wasted-" Sloan started.

"Completely," Falco added.

"Aparoids all over the place. So I took cover and waited to see what they would do right?"

"Really crappy cover I might add. I'm amazed they didn't see you."

"Man, shu' up for a second! Anyways, this guy saw me and came barrelling out of the building towards me. An Aparoid saw him and blasted him."

"Dead before he hit the ground."

"Do you wanna' tell the story?"

"No, no you're doin' a fine job."

"Okay then. So the guy is dead, and then one of the little Aparoids comes up and puts some straw-like thing in his chest. After it went away I went to see what he had done. The blast mark was gone! No marks or anything. Then I heard a snapping sound."

"That was me," Falco cut in again.

"I figured. I turned around and the guy grabbed me while I had my back turned!"

"Wait," Fox cut in. "You're saying the dead man grabbed you?"

"Yeah, my arm," Sloan answered.

"I saw it, Fox," Falco backed her up.

"His eyes were so cold, and he started saying what Pigma was saying before you wasted him." Wolf's eyes darkened.

"He was an Aparoid."

"Hold on a second, I don't understand," Fox said, totally confused.

_Such an idiot._ Wolf thought. Falco didn't seem to think he was too bright either.

"Let me put it _very_ simply, the guy was dead. The Aparoid did something, and then he wasn't dead. But he wasn't normal after. He was… I dunno' how to say this… _Aparoided_."

"Is that even a word?" Sloan asked him.

"Listen sister, two weeks ago I didn't know Aparoid was a word!" Wolf almost smiled. The two sounded so similar. Falco was just a big kid.

"So even in death you aren't safe," Wolf finished Falco's thought.

"That's how the Aparoids converted most of the Guard! They would have had to kill them!" Fox realized. Wolf wasn't please by this new development.

"Saddle up Sloan, let's go home."

"Home?"

"Sargasso."

"Oh, right. Bye Falco."

"See you around." Sloan turned and was in the air in record time. Leon and Panther came screaming around the buildings and hovered near Wolf, who addressed Fox one more time.

"I've got one piece of advice for you. When the time comes, don't hesitate, just act." And with that he left his rival to watch him disappear into Sloar's glare at full speed. He had a call to make.


	10. Chapter 10

Author's Note: As you'll see as you read this chapter, it doesn't have its usual dialogue excerpts from in game. For certain reasons, I can't obtain dialogue from the later levels in the Star Fox Assault game. I would really appreciate it if someone could send me the dialogue and the basic sequence of events for the last to levels (the Aparoid City, Inside the Planet). The final confrontation with the Queen and the last cinema scene, while preferred, is not necessary. Thanks!

P.S.: Sorry this chapter took so long! I didn't realize I hadn't updated since May…

It had been a few days since the Aparoid attack, and there was an unnatural chill around the station. There was a war raging not too far outside its walls, and only four inhabitants knew its whole story, of which none of them were talking. The rumours had begun to get wilder and more frightening.

Wolf could feel the chill too. The Aparoids moved forward like a wave, assimilating or killing everything in its path. The picture of complete and utter destruction the Queen had shown him at Pigma's fortress was still stuck in his mind.

It was completely desolate. Black scarred earth, charred trees. Everything was black and red with fire and blood. The Queen had been so proud of the picture, and forced his whole consciousness into it. It had felt like he had been standing right on the field. His body had been forced to move through the whole gruesome production like he was nothing more than a puppet with the Aparoid Queen holding his strings, staring down at mutilated bodies and glassed over eyes. He had watched as the Mark 1 Aparoids stood over the bodies, their strange proboscises piercing into stilled hearts. Until the run-in on Corneria he hadn't understood. Now he knew their intent to assimilate. She had led him over to a cliff. Wolf had tried to pull back, he didn't want to see any more carnage, but she had needed to show him her power, and he was forced to look.

He believed what lay far below him had once been a city. He couldn't be sure, since it had been totally levelled. There were no hints to tell of the grandeur the city once held. No destroyed roads, no hollowed out shells of skyscrapers, just a pile of scrap, miles in every direction. Out from the wreckage newly made Aparoids, once dead inhabitants of the city, marched, slowly and deliberately, there flesh bodies strangely unmarked in contrast to the devastation around them. It had made him sick, because he knew that the Queen had set her greedy eyes on Corneria, intent on doing the exact same thing all over again, again and again, until someone put and end to her whole twisted collective. With help, he had been able to fend off such destruction once, could he do it again? For one, he needed to stop them for his own personal reasons. His call had been made on that end, and everything was alright, but he knew it was an uneasy peace. He looked out the window of his quarters, half expecting to see an Aparoid flagship heading for the station, guns blazing.

Not having the answers to his troubling questions, he turned back to his work of filling up a sturdy sling backpack, the kind with only one strap that goes across the wearer's chest, with survival gear. Emergency rations, a first aid kit, breather and such. In all the commotion he hadn't realized that not only had he not had time to properly train Sloan, but she also didn't have any survival gear. Wolf's own pack was stashed behind the seat of his Wolfen.

Sloan. What had he gotten himself into with her? How much truth did King's words hold? He had never seen her with a blade, and she didn't seem like the type to sulk among the shadows and pounce for the kill when you least expected it. She looked more the type that lived her life with someone else's hand around her neck. Yet, it could all be a front. He'd hardly known her long enough to trust her.

Wolf reached out for something else to put in the pack, but found the table empty. He had put everything away and his wandering mind hadn't even noticed. He zipped up the bag and, since he had nothing else to do, decided to take it directly to Sloan. He checked his watch. It was early, 6:13, he figured she should still be asleep in her room. He left his quarters and walked two doors down to Sloan's. He knocked on the locked door.

"Come in," Sloan's voice called as the door slid back and let him in. Her room was pretty much the same as his, albeit a little smaller. She was sitting on the cream coloured couch, flipping through channels on the wall mounted holo-television in her living room. She was curled up in a thick green sweater, smiling comfortably. There was something about the whole scene that made Wolf want to smile too.

"Oh, hey Wolf," Sloan chirped, fully awake.

"I didn't think you would be up so early."

"I couldn't sleep…" Wolf could see from the fear still lingering in her eyes and that little something changing in her smile that suddenly made it seem forced that she must have had another of her nightmares. When questioned, Wren reluctantly told him that Sloan had told her about nightmares that occurred almost nightly.

"What's that?" she asked, pointing to the pack slung over his shoulder. Wolf shouldered it off and handed it to her.

"It's your survival gear. Put it in your Wolfen, and if when you're on a mission and you're out of your Wolfen, it's on you back. It could just save you." Sloan opened up the pack and rifled through it. Some of the things she had never seen before.

As Sloan looked through the pack, Wolf glanced around the room. If Sloan hadn't been sitting on the couch when he came in, he would have been hard pressed to find any evidence that she actually lived in the apartment. Nothing had been moved, minus a few of the encyclopaedias on the book shelf in the den. There were no personal effects anywhere. There wasn't even a shirt carelessly cast off and lying somewhere, a trademark of most teenagers.

"You sure made this space your own, didn't you?" Wolf said sarcastically. Sloan looked around, somewhat embarrassed.

"I've got some stuff in my bedroom. I haven't had time to buy anything to decorate with. It's not like I have any family pictures to put up. So what does this do?" She held up a small mouth and nose mask with two red tubes on either side of it.

"It's a breather. You put it on and it purifies the air you breathe. You can use it under water too," he answered. Sloan nodded, putting it back in the bag. "Anything else?" Sloan shook her head.

"No, I think I can figure it out." She zipped up the bad and threw it over her shoulder. "I'll go put it away now so I don't forget. You wanna' come?" she asked. Wolf gave her a look. She rolled her eyes. "Do you want to come?" Wolf shrugged.

"I was heading that way anyways."

"Great," she said brightly and headed for the door. Wolf followed behind.

"You sure are awake for this early in the morning," he said.

"Why, what time is it? I've always had a really bad sense of time. I think it's because I grew up in space. I've been sort of programmed to get up that early on Sector Y."

"You sound like you had some pretty long days."

"Yeah, well, we were up early because government regulations say they have to try and teach us. They didn't do it very well, but I know my ABC's. That ended at three or four…"

"You don't remember?"

"Like I said, bad sense of time. Anyways, afterwards some of us went to see shrinks and stuff like that, others had free time. Most of use went to the sleeping quarters at eight, but we didn't sleep until the lights went out at eleven, so we had some. That was pretty much my life." They fell into silence once the reached the lift. Sloan didn't speak again until they reached the hanger. She looked like she was working up the courage to ask Wolf something. He sighed.

"Alright, what is it?"

"Well, uh, I was just kinda'… _kind of_ wondering…"

"Yes?"

"What was your childhood like?" Sloan had expected him to get angry at her trying to probe into his past, but instead he looked as if he was formulating an answer that wouldn't give anything away.

"Eventful." Sloan shouldn't have been disappointed with his answer, but she had hoped for just a little more information.

"Oh. Eventful good or eventful bad?"

"I guess it would depend on who you asked. I thought you were going to put that away." He pointed at her bag.

"Oh, right, yeah." She turned and ran over to her Wolfen, pushed the cockpit open and threw in the bag.

"Why are you down here?" She asked as she walked unhurriedly back over to Wolf.

"I just wanted to check some things. Go back to your room and sleep in for a change." It must have been the way he said it, but Sloan couldn't keep from smiling. Wolf smiled too, almost like the time just after King came to Sargasso. Wolf jerked his head towards the door. "Go on. Then maybe we'll get a chance to do some more training." Sloan nodded, exited that she'd finally get in some more flight time that wasn't during a real war. She ran for the door, and nearly ran smack into Wren, who was coming in. Wren grabbed her by the shoulders to stop her.

"Sorry," Sloan mumbled.

"Its okay," Wren let go of Sloan and slipped past her, worry etched on her face.

"Lord O'Donnell, there's a message for you." Wolf cocked and eyebrow.

"From who?"

"Star Fox."

XXX

Panther and Leon were already waiting in the control room for them. Leon's eyes narrowed at the sight of Sloan with Wolf again. Sloan glared at him. She couldn't understand his problem, and as soon as she found out she was under Wolf's protection, she had stopped caring. She knew Wolf wouldn't let anyone hurt her, he had already demonstrated that several times.

The control room still hadn't been completely repaired from Star Fox's ambush, but it had been repaired enough to be of some use. Sol was sitting at a control panel.

"Alright, play the message," Wolf ordered. Sol's fingers flew over the slightly raised keys. Fox's holographic face appeared suddenly in the middle of a holo-pad to the left of the control panel.

"Star Wolf. This is going to sound like a weird request-"

"You can say that again," Wolf muttered. Fox McCloud asking his enemy to do _anything_ for him was weird.

"But I need your help. There's no time to explain, I just need you to come to the Beltano Orbital Gate. The Aparoids are here and we're getting murdered out here." His head whipped around. Someone from off-screen was talking to him. He nodded and turned back around to face them.

"Please Wolf. Stop hating for me for just long enough to destroy this Aparoid threat." Fox's face disappeared. Wolf sighed and looked over at Sloan.

"Looks like you'll have to sleep in some other time."

XXX

Sloan was on her guard as soon as the team hit the Beltano Orbital Gate space zone, following close behind Wolf and trying her best to mimic his movements. From the get-go she could tell the battle wasn't going well. The space zone was flooded with ships from both sides. Debris from destroyed ships hung in space like forgotten garbage and, Sloan noticed, more looked to have once carried the Cornerian Army emblem than the strange crystals that marked allegiance to the Aparoid Queen. Solar was a pale white sphere hanging in the blackness to the right of the gate, turning the clouds of Aparoids flying around in loose formations into menacing silhouettes.

"Star Wolf," Fox said through a shared channel so everyone could hear, "Good to see you could make it. Sorry we had to start without you, they came out of nowhere, the signal we were tracking was a hoax."

"These guys just keep getting smarter," Falco put in. "If we don't kill these guys soon, we won't be able to at all."

"Nothing is unbeatable. If you were as strong as I was, you would realize that," Leon hissed. Wolf promptly told him to can it.

"So what's the plan?" he asked

"We found their home planet, but to get there we need the Orbital Gate. They must have figured that out, because they made a beeline here and took it. We've been trying to fight our way in since," Fox reported

"And the crew?"

"No word."

"Right, Star Wolf, you know what you have to do. Get into the station, dislodge the Aparoids, and find the crew." They broke then, but it was easier said than done. As soon as Sloan got close to the station a cloud of Aparoids fell on her. Her body tensed as she pulled off a dizzying array of flips, turns and shots that, while to her felt slow and deliberate, sent the Aparoids spinning off into space in pieces. Soon more Aparoids, faster ones this time that could almost keep up with her, began to attack. It wasn't too long before she decided she had taken enough and pulled out to fly around and try again.

Even though the pilots were doing there best, it seemed as if there were even more enemy ships flying around than when Star Wolf had first arrived. She pegged a few Aparoids that dared come too close. She started to think hard, which meant she also started to chew her lip, a nasty habit she had never been able to shake.

"There has to be a way to get in, maybe if I had a map of the station…" As if answering her wish, her data pad started to beep. It wasn't actually hers, it was the one Leon had thrown to her on Corneria. She had sworn she would never give it back. She had wiped all the information off of it and spent and hour and a half the night before scratching Leon's engraved name off the back of it and writing her own in blue permanent marker across the glossy metal surface. Leon had been furious, and she sincerely hoped that there had been something very important stored on it that was now lost forever. The data pad in question was now plugged into the console of her Wolfen. She picked it up. It was downloading a new file, she checked who it was from. To: Leonsucks -Wolf had told her to change that as soon as he had seen it- From: FL She mouthed the initials. Unaware of Falco's last name, she could only guess that was who it was from. She opened a channel to thank him.

"How did you know?" she asked.

"If you want to have a private conversation with yourself, it would be wise to turn off your comm." Sloan rolled her eyes.

_And a big hand for the queen of stupid._

"And besides," Falco continued, "If you're gonna' get in, you need to know where the entrance is, right? Speaking of entrances, I got an idea, but I need some bait, you in?"

"Bite me."

"Now, now, no need to get all hostile. I asked you to help cuz' I saw you give those Aparoids a serious shit kicking a second ago. Who taught you to fly like that?"

"Wolf," Sloan blurted the only logical name she could think of.

"Figures. Okay k'mon." He banked hard to the right and headed for the station. Sloan hadn't said she would do it, he had just assumed she was as crazy as he was.

She had been bait before for some half-assed scheme to get back at King, she was supposed to kick him and run into a back hall where a group of kids would give King a taste of his own medicine. In the end everyone chickened out and she was left with the blame and the punishment. Her shoulders and head started to ache at just the memory.

"Are you coming any time this week?" Falco asked impatiently. "Sorry to rush you but the Aparoids won't wait for you to make up your mind." Sloan could feel her teeth digging unconsciously into her lip again. This wasn't Sector Y anymore, she had to remember that.

"… Yeah, yeah, here I come." She flew up next to him as they drifted slowly towards the station.

"Okay, you see that cloud of Aparoids over there?"

"Over there, how descriptive, there's about 200 Aparoids _over there_." He read her the cloud's co-ordinates. "Okay, I got it now."

"They're guarding a maintenance shaft. It's big enough for a maintenance craft so we should fit too. All you have to do is-"

"Draw their fire. That's your plan, I get shot at while you go save the day?"

"You didn't let me finish. Once I get in and open the shaft, I'm going to fire a bomb in the middle of their little gang. You get out of the way as soon as you see it. See? No big deal."

"Unless I don't see the bomb, in which case I'm dead."

"You're such a pessimist. Just get in there and shake things up a bit." He flew off then into the shadow of the Orbital Gate, almost impossible to see. Sloan took a deep breath.

_Okay, show time._ She jumped into the fray without a second thought. Her more-than-adrenaline rush kicked in again just as she made contact with the Aparoid gang. She tipped her wings slightly and barely missed a small Aparoid that had charged her as soon as she had gotten close. Other, larger ones opened fire on her, too many to dodge. She instantly regretted her involvement in Falco's deranged plan. She could only dodge and fire and hope that whatever he was doing wouldn't take much longer.

Just when she was begging to think she had again been left for dead, she saw a flash like a shooting star. It whizzed past her ship from the direction of the space station, into the Aparoid cloud. Sloan pulled out and rose vertically above them as a nova bomb exploded in there midst, it's angelic white glow and not so righteous ball of fire following at her tail. She could see Falco now, sitting near the maintenance shoot, back in the light of Solar with his canopy glaring.

"Not so bad. If you're ready…" He then looped and dove into the maintenance shaft. Sloan followed carefully behind him into the darkness.

It was pitch black in the shaft. The darkness was split only by the faint light of Falco's engine exhaust. Sloan shifted to infrared video. The shaft was only a bit wider than her wing tips. It was a square though, so she had a fair degree of clearance on the top and bottom. Falco was way ahead of her. The engine exhaust was only a faint glimmer, like a tiny candle at the end of a mansion's grand hallway, complete with thousands of rooms. Every few feet there were smaller shafts splitting off to different parts if the station. If she manipulated her wings and brought them in for speed instead of control, she might just be able to fit, but after her mishap at Pigma's fortress, and since Falco went relentlessly onward, she didn't dare try manoeuvring into one.

"Uh, Falco, where we goin'?"

"The landing zone. It's at the bottom of the station. From there we'll have access to the whole station through the Jeffery's tubes and the lift. All the other shoots around here only go to one place. The landing zone was made for use in system wide emergencies."

"Sounds like exactly what we need," Sloan said. "Where do you think the crew's hiding?"

"If the escape pods weren't working, and I had to pick a place to hide on this station, then I would high-tail it to the cargo bay. It would have everything I would need to stay for the long run, and you can disable the cargo hatch and put up some pretty hefty shields in there," Falco decided. Sloan leaned back and brought up the schematics for the base. It was massive.

The station was laid out over 10 major decks. Four of which were use for crew quarters, two were agricultural and supplied food for the ship-the rest of the food was shipped in daily from Corneria-, one was engineering, one for the cargo bay, one was used for science and the deployment of the gate, one was the mess hall and off duty enjoyment, including several holo-decks. The station was also full of dead space for easy access when problems arose and when maintenance needed to be done, along with a multitude of smaller decks that didn't span the length of the station. It was also a veritable honey comb of maintenance shafts and Jeffery's Tubes. Sloan wasn't looking forward to navigating the station.

"Uh, Falco, you wouldn't happen to know your way around this place, would you?" Sloan asked hopefully.

"I spent a little bit of time here during my sis' academy days. She gave me the grand tour. I don't remember much, but some of it managed to hang on," he told her. It wasn't very reassuring.

Just as Sloan thought the shaft might go on forever, Falco dropped suddenly out of sight. She was just about to radio him when she too was deposited in the belly of the beast. It was just a bit brighter in this chamber than in the shaft. The room itself was cavernous, halogen running lights lit up a landing zone suspended in the center of the room. There were four thin catwalks connecting the platform to the walkway that hugged the perimeter of the circular room. The walkway was piled high and haphazardly with boxes and other supplies. Bare cables and open panels hung everywhere, and everything seemed in disarray.

They landed, and Sloan unplugged her data pad and shoved it into her survival kit, then grabbed the blaster from behind her seat and got out. Falco was standing on the wing of his Arwing and rummaging around in the cockpit.

"Jus' give me a sec'," he muttered when he noticed Sloan looking impatiently at him. Sloan turned and walked to the edge of a platform. She gripped the railing as she looked over the side and into the abyss below. The bottom of the chamber was a pattern of metal bolted together in connecting hexagon shapes. Inside the hexagons was hyper density Clear Steel, a type of glass developed by Space Dynamics for use in all space vessels.

There was a spire that began far below the station, shot right through the middle of it, and ended high above. It also speared through the middle of the landing zone. It was about 15 feet wide, and the landing platform continued out from it another two Arwing lengths the whole way around. In the middle of the spire was a door. Falco jumped down from his Arwing and walked over to it. He punched in several codes into the control panel next to the door, only to get the same result every time, a noise that said his codes had been denied.

"Crap, looks like they've taken the system," he growled.

"What does this mean?" Sloan asked.

"It means that the lifts are busted." He turned around to look at Sloan, wearing a grimace. "And you and I have a long crawl through the Jeffery's Tubes to look forward to." He pulled out his own data pad. "If we're on a non-deck… that makes three decks to the cargo bay… but we can't open those doors without control of the system… and the control room is about seven decks up… right, six major decks to get through, plus eight minor ones."

"Shit," Sloan muttered. Falco cuffed her lightly on the arm on the way passed.

"Quit cussing kid, that's my frickin' job." Sloan rolled her eyes and followed him over one of the catwalks. Falco glanced over the railing, then at her. He could see her discomfort. "I hope you're not afraid of heights, cuz' there are lots of views like this around the station." Sloan smiled.

"I grew up in space, if I was afraid of a sight like that, I would be dead along time ago. This place just reminds me of… something" Falco nodded, then stopped near a panel set into the wall. He pulled out a pocket knife, flipped up the blade, and shoved it in the crack between the panels. Without much trouble, the panel fell to the floor, revealing a brightly lit crawlspace. Sloan tensed. She wasn't afraid, but she definitely didn't like tight spaces. Falco kneeled down and smiled.

"After you. And I suggest taking your coat off, it's gunna' get hot." Sloan did as she was told and stuffed Luther's black windbreaker into her survival bag before kneeling down and crawling into the Jeffery's Tube.

Falco was right, it got hot fast and stayed that way. The florescent lights in the tubes were of poor quality and gave off more heat than light. On more than one occasion Sloan had shrieked in pain and surprise as a searing pain jolted through one of her shoulders that had accidentally touched one of the lights, leaving a painful red mark as a reminder. She learned quickly after that to keep her shoulders down and away from the lights.

Even though they slithered as fast as they could through the tubes, after nearly two hours Sloan felt as though they hadn't made any progress at all. She was starting to tire, but she tried to keep her pace, not wanting Falco to see her fatigue.

"So, you said that you were born in space, where?" Falco asked, trying to strike up a conversation.

"A station in Sector Y."

"Sector Y? I didn't think there were any residential stations there, too much space debris or something, it's too dangerous to live there." Sloan said nothing. It wasn't the debris that made it dangerous, although she did remember a time when she was six or seven and some space debris hit the station. There had been more than a few child casualties that time.

"Where did you grow up?" Sloan asked, diverting the conversation away from her.

"Ah, my story isn't interesting. I grew up in a little apartment in Corneria City's residential district. A bit too little for the six of us," he added as an after thought.

"Six? Wow."

"Yeah, three siblings. You an only child?" he said, switching the focus again.

"Uh, yeah, you could say that." Before Falco could inquire about her lukewarm answer, they came to another ladder, leading to a hatch with M-07 stamped on it. "Falco, we're looking for Deck M-07, right?"

"Yup, this should be it. The hatch is a press and turn type." She took a hold of the handle, pressed the button on it with her thumb, and turned the handle clockwise. There was a low sound of a latch letting go. She pushed out the hatch and crawled into a circular room that could easily hold 20 people. It was lit only by the faint glow emanating from the buttons on the control panel. Through the dim light, Sloan could see a man slumped forward on the controls, his back ripped wide open, body shaking. Sloan stood her ground, not sure whether to approach the body or leave it for fear of Aparoid infection. Falco stepped up next to her and, sensing her worry, put a hand on her shoulder. She tensed, but forced herself to relax again.

"Don't worry Sloan, look. If the Aparoids had gotten him, the wound would be closed." Even so, Sloan gripped her Blaster tightly as she and Falco stepped up to the body. As Falco reached out to check his pulse, Sloan noticed something strange. Along the edges of the wound, a think pink crystal was encrusted, reminding Sloan of dried blood. It was inside the wound as well, and on his skin. Sloan's stomach fell.

"Sloan he's got a pulse. If we can-" The man suddenly gasped, grasping Falco's hand that had been checking his pulse. Falco jumped back, but couldn't break the young man's grasp. The man's eyes were pale and milky, like two moons staring out from his terrified face. His veins were popping up against his skin. They looked ready to burst.

"Please," the man's voice was horse. "Help me." Sloan wasn't sure what to do. Was he an Aparoid? Falco took the man by the waist and lowered him to the floor. The man was a red fox. He couldn't have been much older than 25. His uniform was white and purple, signifying his non-military, scientific status. The man's breathing was laboured, like the Aparoid infection was killing him instead of healing his injuries. He was covered in sweat. His uniform was more or less intact in the front, he never even saw his attackers.

"Listen, we're here to rescue you. What's your name?" Falco asked. The man took a few seconds to answer.

"Palkin," he finally gasped. "Isaiah Palkin. I… I didn't even see them coming. My back… and then… they put something… in my chest. Oh god, I feel like I'm on fire."

"It's okay. Where is the rest of the crew?"

"The cargo bay. I locked the system after they got in."

"So it was you. Good idea." Falco got up from Isaiah's side and looked at the control panel. "Can you tell me how to open it?"

"Yes. It's fairly simple." It took Isaiah less than a minute to walk Falco through the procedure. The lights flickered back to life, and the sound of electricity surging through the station like lifeblood returned. Isaiah waved Falco back over, and he leaned down to hear his quiet voice.

"The wound… is it bad?"

"Nah, it cauterized itself. You're not bleeding or anything. You'll be fine. So look, we're going to go get the rest of the crew and then-"

"No!" Isaiah exclaimed, reaching up and grabbing Falco's wrist again. "Don't leave me here! What if they come back?! They'll… they'll-!" Falco put his hand on Isaiah's shoulder.

"Look, they're not coming back. Trust me." Isaiah looked at him fearfully for a second, then nodded and put his head back down on the metal floor.

"O-okay." Falco reassured him one last time, then got up and headed for the lift. Sloan followed him, more than a little angry.

"What the hell was that!?" Sloan burst out as soon as the lift doors closed.

"What was what?" Falco asked without looking at her. He knew exactly what she was talking about.

"You lied to him! Those Aparoids could come back any minute, and he'll be all alone!" Falco turned back to her so suddenly she jumped back, his cold, pale eyes narrowed.

"Are you going to tell him I lied? It's what he wanted to hear. Besides, were going to blow the shit out of those bastards before they can get back to him so-holy shit!" the last part was brought on when the lift doors opened and a strange Aparoid stuck it's sharp, spidery limbs into the lift, trying to skewer the two occupants. It looked a little like the giant, tank-like Aparoids that had nearly destroyed Corneria City, but instead they were small enough to fit into the hallways of the station. And, instead of a cannon as a weapon, their legs were so sharp they were practically walking on knives.

Falco jumped out of the way easily and was agile enough to duck past the beast, Sloan wasn't so lucky. There was limited room to move, and while Sloan was able to avoid a knife-like leg through the heart, her awkward dodge left her open, and got her a nasty slash in the leg. She was sent sprawling against the wall. She threw her hands up to protect her face from more slashing blades.

A shrill screech told Sloan that Falco had finally dispatched the beast. It fell almost on top of her. She pushed it off to the side and crawled out of the lift.

"Took you long enough," she snarled.

"You're welcome," Falco grumbled back. His eyes zeroed in on Sloan's injuries. "Does that hurt?" Sloan shrugged.

"No, not really," she said coolly, trying to sound like it didn't hurt. The gashes, though not very deep, were bleeding badly, and the larger one on her leg hurt to walk on. Falco watched suspiciously as she limped up next to him. Sloan noticed him looking at her. "Okay, maybe a little."

"Sit down," Falco ordered, reaching into his survival pack.

"Listen, just cuz' I'm kinda' young doesn't mean you can-"

"Sit _down_!" he snarled. Sloan dropped to the ground. He kneeled down next to her, in hand was a tube of cream. He popped open the lid, then thought better of it and handed it to Sloan. "Put this on you injuries, it'll stop the bleeding and it has a mild pain reliever in it. The rest of it you'll just have to bite down on," Falco explained. Sloan was about to thank him when she heard a screeching sound from the hallway. Half a dozen Mark 1's were racing down the hallway towards them. Sloan and Falco both pulled out Blasters, aimed them at the same place, and fired at the same time, their guns parallel. The Mark 1's were blasted away before they had a chance to act. The two gunners exchanged a look, then Sloan went about smearing the cream on her injuries. It did work well, but it didn't erase Sloan's sadness at ruining Wren's jeans so soon after being given them. She was wearing her old t-shirt, so she didn't care that it was ripped.

"You done yet? We need to get moving to the Cargo Bay," Falco asked, shifting impatiently from foot to foot. Sloan got to her feet and handed the cream back to him. "You get that checked out as soon as we get through this y'hear? It might be infected… or something."

"Yeah, thanks. So, where we headed?" Falco jerked his head in the direction of a hallway. He held out his hand as if to say, after you. Sloan walked ahead of him, this time her Blaster was at the ready. They moved silently, so Sloan couldn't talk to Falco, but there was a question burning in her that she was dying to ask someone.

_What happened to that Isaiah guy? He said that an Aparoid had put something in his chest, but he isn't an Aparoid, even though he's got some of the crystal on him. Why didn't he change?_ Sloan shook her head in confusion. It was a question for Wolf, he would know.

She noticed a sign on the wall that said the main door of the Cargo Bay was just around the corner. Sloan looked ahead just before she turned the corner, and stopped dead. She threw out her arm to stop Falco from walking out in front of her, pushing them both out of sight of the door.

"What the hell was-?!" Falco started. Sloan shushed him angrily. Slowly, she peeked around the corner at the door. It was completely covered in Aparoid crystal. Mark 1's were crawling all over it, adding layers to the crystal barrier. The strange arachnid Aparoids that seemed to have been made specifically for the Orbital Gate siege were walking around in seemingly random orders. Sitting in the middle, embedded in the crystal, was a Hatcher, spewing out an Aparoid every few seconds. There would be no getting in through that door without something to cut through the crystal. Falco looked over her.

"Shit!" Falco hissed. "Well, this complicates things a bit. Smart little bastards." He cocked his head. "We could always blow the door."

"Yeah, but what about all the Aparoids crawling all over the place?"

"We've got guns." Sloan looked back at the Aparoid wall. Whatever was about to go down, it wasn't going to be pretty. She pulled and held the trigger, charging up for a more powerful blast.

"On three," Falco whispered in her ear as he slipped his shades down over his eyes, shifting silently to the opposite wall. He looked around the corner one more time, Blaster at the ready. He held up one, two, three fingers, then signalled to go in.

They jumped out at the same time, catching the Aparoids totally of guard. They were able to blast four off the wall before they could act, but when they finally did, they're attack was so co-ordinated that Sloan and Falco were soon pushed back into the hallway. The seemingly random order was actually strategic positions. They dropped on them from both sides, slashing dangerously. Blaster shots simply dispersed along its silvery hide. Taking cover again, Falco shouldered his Blaster and pulled out a Pistol.

"What are you doing?" Sloan hissed.

"Plasma isn't working," Falco said, slightly distracted as he pulled out a clip and fed it into his pistol, pulled the slide back, and held it ready. "So we need some projectiles. You take the Mark 1's out, they're still susceptible to plasma."

"Alright." Their second attack was much more effective. Falco was an excellent marksman, and didn't waste more than two bullets on each of the Spyder units, as Sloan unofficially named them. Sloan was a lot messier, blasting at anything that moved. They were, however, equally as effective. Sloan watched the last Aparoid fall from the wall and curl up dead on the floor, a Blaster shot through its chest. Sloan inched closer to make sure it was dead, then turned to inspect Falco's handiwork.

"Wow, where'd you learn how to do that?" Sloan asked, a little bit of awe in her voice. Falco shrugged.

"My old man," he answered simply. He holstered the pistol and fumbled with something on his belt. "I wouldn't stand there if I were you," he said nodding at the door which was now at Sloan's shoulder. "As I am about to blow it up." Sloan jumped and took half a dozen steps back. Falco pulled out two motion sensing bombs and walked over to the wall.

"Unfortunately, this is all I got in the way of explosives, except grenades of course, but that would be too dangerous. I won't use any more than two though, don't want to blow a hole in the station," Falco grinned.

"That would be bad," Sloan agreed.

"Okay, so let me set this up and…" Just then, there was a shrieking sound like tortured metal from the hall they had come from. "What the hell?!" Falco yelled above the sound. He pulled out his pistol and raised it, ready to shoot at any sign of danger. Sloan brought her Blaster to bear as well, just as the metal stopped screeching. They both stood ready for what was coming. Or so they thought.

XXX

Even with help from Wolf's team, the battle wasn't going well.

_Just too many of them._ Wolf thought angrily as he futilely destroyed ever more Aparoids.

"Fox!" he barked.

"Yes, what?"

"Are there any more reinforcements coming?" The first wave of fighters had quickly succumbed to the Aparoids, but the second was doing better. Wolf hoped that maybe the Cornerian forces were beginning to get a handle on the situation.

"I think we've got two more units coming, but that's all." Wolf nodded gravely, even though he knew Fox couldn't see him. Would it be enough?

XXX

"Oh god…" Sloan murmured as the Aparoid rounded the corner.

"Dammit," Falco hissed, raising the pistol. Sloan couldn't move, she was too horrified.

Their enemy was a young man, a wolf about the same age as Isaiah. Or, at least, it had been. His corpse had been horribly mutilated by the Aparoids. His left arm was gone from the elbow down, replaced with some kind of Aparoid weapon. It looked vaguely like a cannon of some kind, with its barrel opening protected by three flaps. His right hand was devoid of flesh and instead covered with Aparoid crystal. On each of his fingers, the crystal curved downwards into a menacing claw. Most of his body was covered in thick crystal armour. Under the armour you could see his heart beating through the hole blown in his chest. It was a strange black colour, and was beating fast. One of his eyes was missing, replaced with some kind of device for processing information and sending it back to the queen. Somewhere there must have been some kind of receiving device as well.

Falco wasn't as fearful. Just the contrary, he was angry. He shot the monstrosity twice, a double tap to its heart. The creature roared, Sloan wasn't sure weather it was in anger or pain, stumbled and fell to the floor. Falco shook his head.

"You've got to be kidding me," Falco snarled, turning his back on the cadaver. "How dare they do that to somebody? Man, he was just a kid." Falco turned angrily back to his work of blowing the door. He didn't see what Sloan saw. He didn't see the hand twitch. Once, twice. He didn't see the head rise up from the floor. He didn't see it scan Sloan. He did, however, hear the low growl it emitted as it recognized Sloan as something other than an Aparoid. Falco turned slowly around, switching from Pistol to Blaster in one smooth motion as he did so. By the time he was facing the enemy he was firing. The plasma rounds made it stumble, but in the end were about as effective as the projectile rounds that were still lodge in its armour.

It snarled angrily at the two. Its turn. It didn't gauge them as important targets, so instead of using its cannon it charged using its claws. That's not to say they weren't dangerous enough. Each one was at least a foot long. Falco was ready for his charge, but a still terrified Sloan seemed to be frozen to the spot. The monster seemed to sense this, because it rounded on her. Sloan stumbled backwards as it came closer. All she could see were those terrible claws, that tortured face. She tripped over something and went sprawling backwards. She struggled to get up, but he was over her in a second. Claws flashing, he prepared to plunge them into her body precisely where they would do the most damage. Sloan expected to see some hint of triumph in his eyes, but there was just cold emptiness.

Just as Sloan thought it was over, Falco came flying out of nowhere and hit the Aparoid menace with a full bodied tackle. The two went sprawling to the floor.

"Run Sloan!" Falco shouted as he tried desperately to fight off his attacker. Sloan shook herself from her stupor. She was about to run, but then her foot hit again what had tripped her. Falco's Blaster. It lay forgotten on the floor. It triggered something in Sloan. How could she run while Falco fought a losing battle for her life, not his? And to where? If she stayed on the station, he would simply hunt her down, and if she left, there were others to hunt her outside. She looked down at the Blaster at her feet. She grabbed it, aimed at an exposed part on the Aparoid's head, and fired. It howled with pain and fell back off of Falco. Falco jumped to his feet and, grabbing Sloan's wrist, ran down the hall, his long legs covering a lot of ground fast. Sloan could barely keep up. They stopped when they had run so far that they could no longer hear the Aparoid. Sloan sat down, exhausted. Falco sat next to her.

"So, what do we do now?" she asked sadly.

"Do you still have your 'pad?" Sloan fished it out of her pack and handed it to him. He brought up the 3-D version of the map and scanned it closely. Sloan held her breath. After a few tense moments, Falco jabbed his finger at the screen.

"There. We can go down into the engine room, then back up, directly into the Cargo Bay." Sloan let out her breath, the mission wasn't a failure after all.

"And since the Hatcher's gone…"

"The only things we have to deal with are the buggers creeping around now." Falco noticed the look on Sloan's face. "Plus that… thing." They fell into silence for a moment. "By the way," He said, a little shyly, "nice shot, thanks." Sloan smiled.

"Let's go." They picked themselves up and Falco directed her to, thankfully, not a Jeffery's Tube, but a shaft with metal ladder rungs bolted to the wall.

"I'll go first," Falco said.

"Be my guest." Sloan handed him back his weapon. He shouldered it, then slipped into the shaft. Sloan followed close behind. It was little more than a minute before she heard Falco drop to the floor. She came down half-a-dozen rungs later. She was amazed by what she saw.

The room was alive with lights. The pulsing life of the station was at its loudest here. In the center of the room was a huge cylinder platform and on it… nothing. Nothing at all. She took a step forward. There, something! A network of glass pipes, with a strange mix of gases inside. Another step, and it was all just a black haze. She couldn't find the spot that had let her pierce though the darkness. She looked over at Falco with a questioning look. He grinned at her.

"Pretty cool, huh? It's a Light Refraction Engine. I'm not sure how it works. All I know is that Fara help to develop it. Otherwise, it's all beyond me."

"Fara?"

"Fara Phoenix. She's a scientist. R&D and stuff like that." Sloan nodded, pretending to know who he was talking about.

"So how do we get into the Cargo Bay?" she asked. Falco looked around, then pointed to a metal ladder leading up to the second storey.

"Up there. All we need to do is-" He was cut off as the door to the lift was suddenly punched out if shape. Falco didn't bother to turn, he knew what it was. Instead he started to run for the ladder. Sloan tried to keep up, but he was too fast for her, and was up the ladder and out of sight before she reached it.

Her hand just made contact with the bottom rung when the lift door burst open. The huge piece of two-inch thick metal flew across the room and struck the wall inches from Sloan's head. She turned to see the Aparoid bearing down on her. Panicked, she looked up hopelessly at Falco high above her. He jerked his head towards the colossal engine in the center of the room. It took Sloan a few seconds to realize his plan. The light refraction would hide her from his sight, and the heat would protect her from his thermal imaging. Of course, the downside was she wasn't able to see what she was jumping into. She said a silent prayer and ran and blindly, vaulting the hand rail that ran all the way around.

She hit an array of pipes and, feeling nothing beneath her feet, grabbed onto it for dear life. She could hear the Aparoid behind her, getting closer. She climbed blindly hand over hand until she found an alcove to hide in. At least, she hoped that's what it was. She clutched the hot tubes and felt beads of sweat already starting to trickle down her back. She couldn't see anything, but she could hear the Aparoid snarling angrily, stopped by a wall of darkness. She felt his claws swiping at the emptiness, sometimes inches from her face.

She squeezed her eyes shut. She felt like she was back in solitary. Until that moment, she thought only the darkness of those tiny rooms could be so oppressing, so breath stealing. She could hear the frustrated snarling of the Aparoid. He could do nothing to break the veil of dark set by his senses.

There was a sudden crashing sound. She heard the Aparoid snarl at the sound, then begin to move away. Sloan's eyes opened. She leaned forward a bit, and found a gap where the light reached her eyes. She sat completely still, watching as it lurched away, looking for the source of the noise. A glowing ball of light suddenly dropped down behind him. A grenade, split-seconds from exploding. Sloan swung backwards to protect her eyes. The explosion came immediately afterwards, followed by the sound of something falling from above and rapid shots being fired. Then, finally, silence settled on the room.

"Sloan!" Falco yelled. "C'mon, let's get going." Sloan took a deep breath, then jumped back across the gap. Her jump wasn't as clean as it was before, and her foot caught on the railing. She fell flat on her face. Scrambling to her feet, her eyes fell on the ladder. She started towards it enthusiastically. All she wanted to do was to free the crew and leave. Her injuries ached and she was exhausted. She was so intent on the ladder that she nearly tripped over the body of the fallen Aparoid.

Falco had done a number on him. A large part of his armour had been blasted off by the grenade, leaving a gaping hole in his defences that Falco had used to destroy the semi-living flesh underneath. Its blood was everywhere, Sloan was standing in it. She felt vomit rising in her throat. A hand grabbed her wrist and yanked her away from the sight and towards the ladder. Her hands gripped the rungs, and she forced her self up. Falco pulled her onto the landing at the top. She tried to turn around and look down at the body, but Falco put a strong arm on her shoulder and pushed her towards another ladder.

"You don't need to look," he said as he got on the ladder right behind her, "it's a body, it looks like every other body you'll ever see." Sloan nodded weakly. Above her was yet another hatch.

_This whole damn station is the same!_ She wanted out so bad. She pressed the button on the hatch and turned the handle. There was the same sound of a catch letting go, and she pushed. This time was different, nothing happened.

"Falco?" She asked, her voice wavering. How much longer must she be forced to stay? Falco sighed from behind her.

"Of course, I'm sorry." He slid back down the ladder. Sloan followed his lead. Before he went up the ladder, Falco took off his shades to stare her down with those icy eyes.

"Do. Not. Go. Look." He said slowly, leaving her paralyzed between his orders and her own morbid curiosity. She was always good at following orders. Above her, she heard Falco knocking on the door in a pattern, then waited. A few seconds later, more knocking, this time from the people inside the Cargo Bay. The hatch opened finally, and Sloan could see several fearful faces peeking out, trying to decide whether or not they had been tricked by the Aparoids. Falco disappeared into the darkness, and a few seconds later the crew began to filter through the hatch.

"What's going on?" A young female wolf asked. She didn't look much older than 19, and her blue eyes were full of concern.

"Are all the Aparoids gone?" asked a male hare.

"I don't see any," murmured and older fox. He had a blue and white military uniform on.

"Who is she?" Sloan took a few steps back as a male wolf pointed at her, suspicion etched in his face. She stayed silent. "Well?" he demanded, advancing on her. Falco jumped down from above and landed in between the two of them he rounded on the young man.

"What's your name, kid?"

"Giles, sir."

"Listen, Giles sir, this is Sloan. She's the girl that just joined me on a leisurely stroll through hell to save your ass, so give her some respect!" he snapped. Giles' expression changed instantly. He wasn't sure what to do.

"I… I'm sorry miss. I didn't…" The older fox stepped up next to the stuttering wolf.

"We're very grateful for what you've done for us." He turned to Falco. "What now? Are the Aparoids gone?"

"The worst of them. There's a guy in the control room, he'll be okay for now, but he needs to go to a hospital. As for us," He motioned to Sloan, "we need to get the gate going. We've got the co-ordinates for the Aparoid home world. Let's move!" The last bit was for the younger crew, who jumped and started down the ladder in an orderly fashion. Sloan couldn't help but think of a bunch of multicoloured ants. Sloan remembered about the body just as the first screams echoed from below. The young wolf ran to the edge and looked down. Her eyes opened wide, her mouth dropped open. The hare ran up next to her.

"Oh god, Cruise!" She looked like she was about to jump over the hand railing. The hare wrapped his arms around her waist and dragged her back. The girl was sobbing and calling that name, trying to pull away. Sloan watched her crying and didn't understand why. The people below were looking at the body with horror on there faces, some had tears staining there face, but no one was sobbing like she was. She looked over at Falco with confusion. The fox next to him sighed.

"Poor Elaina. That was her only brother, Cruise Christian. Their parents died awhile ago and he was her only family."

"I'm sorry, I should've moved it," Falco murmured. The mood was sombre as they walked silently to the control room, Elaina still wrapped in the hare's arms. Sloan watched her so intently that she didn't notice Falco come up behind her. She jumped in surprise as he whispered in her ear.

"You're not exactly socialized, are you?" he asked.

"What?" She wasn't quite sure what that meant.

"Well, usually, when one asks who you are, you either give them your name or a snide remark, but you just stood there looking stupid. Besides," he glanced over his shoulder at Elaina, "didn't your mother ever tell you it's rude to stare?" Sloan bristled, trying not to get angry. There was no way for Falco to know just how insensitive that comment was.

"No," Sloan breathed, "no, she didn't." Turning her back on him, she added; "She never told me much of anything." She disappeared before Falco could ask what she meant. Falco didn't see her again until he arrived in the control room with the last of the crew. She was sitting on the floor next to Isaiah as the male hare talked to him, trying to take his mind of the pain. A middle-aged male bearded dragon had out a portable scanner and was checking Isaiah, trying to figure out what was ailing him. From his furrowed brow, Falco guessed he wasn't having much luck.

The crew was very organized, their fear disappearing as soon as they entered the room. Elaina took Isaiah's spot and began keying in orders to the stations systems. Everyone had something to do, and everyone did that something perfectly.

"Sloan!" she jumped and whipped around. She had clearly heard… She looked down at her comm. the tiny red light was on, Wolf was trying to contact her.

"Yes? What?" she answered.

"Where are you?"

"In the station, Falco and I just-"

"Is the crew safe?"

"Yes, we-"

"Then get out here, now! The Aparoids just sent a volley of missiles through, and we need all the firepower we can get."

"This is never gonna' end." Falco moaned. "It's just one thing after another." He turned to the female hawk manning the weapons station. "Is there anything you can do?" She looked back at him sadly.

"Not if you want to be able to charge up the gate after. We won't have the power." He nodded gravely.

"Looks like it's up to us. Let's go, Sloan." With the lifts working again, it took only minutes to get down to their ships. The glass opened up beneath them, and the dove straight down, back into the middle of the fray. Sloan wasn't sure what was going on her mind.

_I should be afraid._ She thought. But the world was slowing down outside her cockpit, and a strange, deadly calm filled her mind until there was no room left for fear. She zeroed in on the missile nearest the gate just as Falco zoomed past her.

"Hah!" She heard Wolf's voice again. "There's one missile down, this is too easy." She wondered vaguely if she was the only one that noticed that tiny hint of concern in his voice as he turned to find yet another missile. Sloan sped towards one that had gone unnoticed by anyone else and had crept dangerously close to the station. She positioned herself in its path. It looked like a huge black spear, pointing its dangerous tip accusingly at Sloan. Green lines pulsed on its surface, making it look almost alive. That almost living quality, however unnerving it might have been for someone else, didn't stop blown from blowing it to hell, along with several others of the same kind in the second wave. After that fun, an eerie calm seemed to settle on the space zone. Even thought it was still crawling with Aparoids, those ships were little more than annoying distractions at that point. The missiles hadn't ended up being much of threat either. But if they weren't a threat, what had been the point?

"Is that it?" she asked quietly. Wolf must have shared her unease, because no sooner had the words left her mouth that Wolf was voicing something similar over his comm.;

"Are we sure that's all of them?" he asked. As if ROB was waiting for someone to ask, just so the bad news could be more dramatic.

"I am detecting another warp signature. This one is larger than the others," his mechanical voice reported just as space on the other side of the station began to splinter, like some angry god was trying to punch its way through matter itself. Another spear like missile broke through from seemingly another dimension and into their world. And it just kept coming, long after it should have stopped.

"Whoa, that looks bigger than missile," Falco said, mouth agape at its sheer size.

"The missile seems to be made up of multiple components,"

"That thing will take out more than just the gate, you must destroy it!"

"Fox!' Wolf's voice immediately rang out as he took charge of the situation. "Star Wolf will take care of the gate, you get that missile!" Sloan felt a little cheated that she wouldn't be able to help destroy the missile, but she did as she was told. It wasn't like there wasn't enough targets. The Aparoid small fighters hadn't backed off since the missiles appeared. If anything, they had intensified. She kept close to Falco, determined to keep the Aparoids off of him while he helped destroy the missile. It was the least she could do after how he had taken care of her inside the station. She orbited him like a moon, keeping back all distractions.

Seeing no Aparoids around, she stole a glance at Fox just as he was able to destroy the first section of the missile. Her breath caught in her throat as she saw a plume of blue engine exhaust sped it up.

"It's getting faster!" Slippy Squeaked.

"Sloan, let's go help Fox," Falco said in a determined voice.

"But Wolf said…"

"Nuts to Wolf! Let's go!" Falco did a loop once around Sloan before blasting off towards the missile. Sloan could see Fox was getting nowhere on his own, and followed. Another one of Falco's Nova Bombs got to the missile before they did. Fox rolled awkwardly to dodge the blast.

"Uh, Falco, are you sure you should be using bombs on an explosive device?" Sloan asked. There was a silence.

"Point," Falco agreed. The two flew in closer. Sloan immediately saw what they were aiming for, a pink, pulsing cylinder of crystal inside the missile. The two started in from two directions, soon joined by Fox McCloud. The missile jarred as three separate twin lasers lit it up from all sides. Another part fell off. A greater plume of exhaust, the missile was getting faster.

"It's speeding up again!" Falco yelped.

"It gets faster as parts are destroyed!" Peppy reported. Sloan chewed her lip.

_Clever Bastards!_ Sloan thought. It was a catch 22. If you left it alone, it would destroy its target, but if you tried to destroy it, you would probably send it hurdling into its target even sooner.

"Contact with the station is imminent!" ROB warned.

"There's nothing we can do to stop it," Fox sighed. "We need to evacuate."

"No!" Sloan shrieked. She looped over and headed straight for the missile. She couldn't let it hit the station, not after all she had done to save it. She targeted the exhaust and fired, she could see the pink core just behind it. She could see it start to shake as she demolished it from within. A heat caution appeared on her heads-up-display. The missile was burning very hot, and her shields weren't liking it. She could feel a bead of sweat trickling down her neck. She was just about to pull out along with the others when the missile suddenly began to lose altitude. The exhaust sputtered out. Sloan watched in awe as a crack split the core. Gas began to vent out.

"Sloan," Wolf's growled a warning. Sloan didn't need to be told twice. A light spread out from the cracks. The missile's malfunction caused it to explode, the shockwave throwing Sloan almost into the rest of the pilots sitting and watching her, and rocked the station, rattling around the crew inside like flies in a can.

"Did it work? Is the station safe?" Sloan was breathing hard.

"Yes Sloan, you did it," Wolf told her. "And Sloan."

"Yes?"

"Don't _ever_ do something that stupid again." Sloan smiled. Fox flew up to them.

"Let's go to the station. They need the co-ordinates of the homeworld, and I'm sure they want to see you, Sloan."

XXX

It was weird for Sloan, seeing all those smiling faces, there owners who, only a half hour before had been suspicious of her, now all standing around, hoping for a chance to shake her hand and introduce themselves. To thank her for her bravery.

Fox was standing on the fringes of the group, glad that the attention was on someone else for a change. Falco, who could clearly see Sloan's discomfort at the crowd, was trying to shoo people away back to there post. Fox was surprised to see that the job had fallen to his wingman, Wolf wasn't even in the room. Slipping through the sliding double doors, he found him loitering near a huge bay window. He was staring into space with a faraway look in his eye. If he had been noticed by his rival, the man made no move to show it.

"She's not coming with us," he said in as stern and final sounding a voice as he dared use on Wolf. Wolf didn't turn around. For a moment Fox wasn't even sure if he was listening. He was about to turn around and go back to the control room when Wolf finally answered.

"Did she say that?"

"I'm saying it for her. She's just a child, Wolf, and this is a dangerous mission, she could get killed."

"What about Corneria City? That was a dangerous mission, and she pulled through then, and just now? If she wants to come, she's coming."

"But she's-"

"If she was on your team then you would have a say, wouldn't you?" He turned to bore into Fox's eyes with is own. "But guess what, she's not, so you don't." Fox shook his head, trying not to look intimidated.

"You're overestimating her abilities." Wolf sighed and turned away.

"You'll never learn pup. You we're what, 16 during the war? How many people wanted to ground you for being so young?"

"That's different… she shouldn't be out here. She should be at home with her family. With people who care about her." Wolf cocked his head, as if considering Fox's words and carefully formulating and answer. Finally, he turned and headed towards Fox, slowly and deliberately, with a strange look on his face. Fox fought the urge to take a step back. Wolf stepped up until there muzzles were inches from each other.

"I'm glad you lived such a sheltered childhood that "family" and "people who care" mean the same thing to you." Fox was about to try and counter when the doors the control room opened, letting out a laughing Falco, his arm around Sloan's shoulder. Her eyes were wide and she was clutching her check.

"You said she needs to be with someone who cares, so she's coming. That's all there is to it," Wolf growled, and Fox knew the conversation was over. But as he followed Wolf over to Sloan, he couldn't help but think about Wolf words.

_She needs to be with someone who cares…does that mean Wolf…?_

"What happened to you?" Wolf asked Sloan. "You're beet red." Falco laughed even harder.

"It's not funny!" Sloan snapped, going and even more deep shade of red. "She turned to Wolf. "I was in there shaking hands and stuff and this guy, uh, Fawenn Rohde, he came up and, and… I thought he was trying to bite me…"

"What?"

"He gave her a little thank you smooch," Falco said, flashing a toothless grin. Fox started to laugh too. Even Wolf thought it was funny enough to crack a smile. Sloan buried her face in her hands and sat down on the floor. Falco knelt down and put his hand on her shoulder.

"Ah, don't be like that. Go in there and flash him a big smile, it'll drive him nuts."

"Falco," Fox moaned.

"What? That's what Katt did to me."

"Katt?" Sloan asked. Falco held up his left hand. On his ring finger was a gold band.

"She's my girl."

"Wolf," Panther called through the comm. "The Wolfens all check out. We're ready to go."

"Alright." He looked to Fox for the clear on his end.

"Ready to deploy," he confirmed.

"And they've got the co-ordinates?" Fox nodded. Wolf looked over at Sloan, who was on her feet in a second, then to Fox, giving him a look that dared him to object. He didn't.

"Let's go."

XXX

"Deploying Orbital Gate," reported one of the crew members. The two mercenary teams were waiting silently next to the gigantic battleship Great Fox. Sloan sat silently watching as three pods jettisoned from the station and form a sort of triangle in open space. Green plasma spread out from the ends of the pods to form a perfect circle. It slowly stretched across the void between until what floated before Sloan looked like a giant pool of green water, its surface rippling ever so slightly.

"Gate established. No anomalies detected. Star Fox, you are cleared to go." The Great Fox stared forward, closely followed by Star Fox. Star Wolf hung back for few seconds, sizing up the situation.

"They never did tell us where we're going," Leon grumbled.

"Just go!" Wolf snapped. Sloan noticed as she tentatively moved towards the gate, Wolf was at her wingtip. Known Wolf was next to her gave her a little courage, but her body tensed and her eyes squeezed shut in anticipation of whatever was to come.


	11. Chapter 11

Author's note: Special thanks on this chapter goes out to my mom for helping me get all my ducks in a row. : )

Sloan cringed as she went through the Orbital Gate. She felt a small something wash over her and her ship, as if her Wolfen had passed through a thin sheet hung in mid air. Still she waited. Something else had to happen to signify her ship going through the gate.

It took her a few seconds to figure out that something _was_ happening. Her ship was turning from side to side, so gently she hadn't noticed it before, completely of its own accord. She opened her eyes slowly. What greeted her was the most amazing sight she had ever seen. She was surrounded in flowing green light, so thick it seemed like a solid object. It was like flying in a tunnel made of the northern lights. Tiny white specks flew past. Sloan soon realized that they were stars. Her Wolfen turned slightly to the left to avoid a planet passing by so close that Sloan could make out the lights of cities on the continents below.

"Must be just above the atmosphere," she breathed. She turned to her left to see and Arwing drawing up next to her. Inside was Falco, trying not to be amazed. Sloan sat back and got comfortable, watching with delight the psychedelic procession before her. The tunnel began to change slowly between the three primary colours, then splitting and mixing to create a rainbow effect. Up ahead was a green wall that looked exactly like the gate they had gone through. Sloan braced herself to go through it, they were moving very fast.

Seconds before they were about to hit the gate, the Wolfen slowed down dramatically, with, somehow, no affect to its pilot. The ship glided elegantly through the gate and was deposited in sight of the Aparoid homeworld. She looked around, there were no ships nearby. She didn't understand. She was sure she had been second last through the gate, followed only by Wolf. Falco was next out of the gate. He drew up next to her.

"Whoa… that felt like a bad acid trip…" He muttered.

"That, was, _awesome_!" Sloan squeaked. "But where is everybody else?"

"I dunno. I suspect they'll be along shortly though." They glided around, waiting for the cavalry, not daring to get too close to the planet. "So… what's Wolf like?" Falco asked, trying to sound like he was only trying to strike up a conversation.

"You know him better than I do. I've only been around… I haven't been around that long." She figured she shouldn't tell him that she had only been flying full time for a week.

"Well, yeah, but you work with the guy. I'm his worst enemy's annoying flunky. Bit of a different relationship, don't you think?"

"He's… tough. He can be a real pain in the ass… but I'm glad he's like that… you know? I can't tell you much else or he'd probably kill me."

"I bet." There conversation ended when the Great Fox slid through the gate, followed by three Arwings and two Wolfens. The third Wolfen appeared shortly thereafter.

"How did you get so far ahead of me?" Wolf asked.

"I just got finished asking myself that," Sloan answered. "The gate seems to have scrambled us."

"I almost went through a star!" Slippy yelped.

"This is all very interesting." Fox growled impatiently. "We can ask Beltino about it when we get back. Right now, let's all turn our attention to the Aparoid planet now, shall we?"

The planet was unexpectedly beautiful. It was covered completely in blue. It was so serene, but something was amiss about the planet. There seemed to be something sinister about the planet's calmness. As if mirroring the Aparoids, there was only calm because there was no clash of minds, only a single one at the whim of the Queen.

"It's lovely, I wasn't expecting that," Krystal murmured.

"Alert. Planet's diameter and mass is disproportionate," ROB warned.

"What? But that doesn't make any sense. That would mean the planet's…" Before he could finish his sentence, there course brought the other side of the planet into view. It was startling different. The whole other half was a pulsing black scab on that beautiful planet. The blackness was permeated by red and blue flashing lines and huge towers that also pulsed with coloured light. The city was suspended above a huge gaping hole covered in crystal. The hole was surely the way to the Aparoid Queen.

"The planet's… hollow?" Slippy breathed.

"Fox, The Hatcher's are keeping the shield going, if you can destroy them all, hen we should be able to get to the Queen," Peppy told Fox.

"I'm on it. The rest of you cover me," Fox said before going down to the city. The Great Fox and the rest of Star Fox followed their leader. Wolf, on the other hand, guided his team silently back to the side of the planet unmarked by the Aparoids. Sloan waited until they were in the atmosphere to say anything.

"Um, Wolf, shouldn't we be helping them?"

"Let them do the legwork. We'll come to their rescue when the pup can't handle it anymore. Right now, I want to know what stopped the Aparoids from expanding across the whole planet. Whatever it was could give us an edge."

They broke through the cloud layer and swooped in close until Sloan's wingtips hovered inches above a lake, splitting the surface without actually touching it. The lake was crystal clear, and stretched out forever in front and behind Sloan. On either side was another never ending sea, this time made of trees. Huge, ancient trees with thick trunks and a grand canopy of blue leaves. Sloan's eyes burned. So many incredible, beautiful sights in sight a short time after a life of grey…

They set down as soon as Wolf found a clearing that was big enough to accommodate the four of them. The forest canopy was so thick and blocked out so much light that they needed the flashlight set on their Blasters just to see where they were going. The air was thick and full of sweet smells. It was like breathing in honey. Little specks of light floated lazily through the air, glowing tails gliding along in their wakes. Wolf put his hand to catch one and see what it was, but it exploded into a million dots of light like a puffball spreading its seeds.

"So what are we looking for?" Sloan asked with a great deal of effort. The thick air made breathing a labour. Wolf, not wanting to waste any bit of energy, merely pointed at the great black wall that stood in stark contrast to the life that was all around them, separating the city from the strange forest. Everyone nodded their comprehension. Start where the Aparoids ended. They walked in silence. Sloan, not being in as good a shape as the other three, struggled to keep up with the brisk pace Wolf set. Despite her best efforts, she continued to fall behind, little by little. She didn't call out though. She didn't want to be a burden to Wolf anymore. The fact that Wolf had to save her every time he turned around hadn't escaped her notice, and she was sure it hadn't escaped Wolf's notice either. Wolf seemed to have taken a special interest in her, but she wasn't sure how much longer he would turn a blind eye to her constant slip ups.

She increased her pace, only to trip and fall flat on her face. Her jeans, already ripped from the Aparoid attack, tore even further until the fabric below her knee dangled uselessly. She grabbed the bit of pointless fabric and ripped it off, throwing it away. She looked up. Only the light from Wolf's flashlight could be seen, everything else was obscured by the dreamlike darkness. Even the light itself shimmered and blinked on and off as if being filtered through heat waves. She dragged herself up off the ground. She took one step and a stab of pain ran through her leg. Her initial injury, the one that the Spyder Aparoid had given her, had reopened. She watched the blood run slowly down her leg, shaking her head. This was going to hurt like hell, but she had to catch up. She broke into a run again.

_Your pain… I feel it. _A breathy whisper echoed from behind a tree. Sloan's head whipped around, but she didn't stop. The voice made her shiver. She would worry about it after she got to Wolf. _Let me heal it for you…_ Sloan thought she saw eyes from the darkness. Two blank, white eyes. She ran faster, stealing a glance down at her leg. It felt like it was on fire, and the gash was bleeding badly. She could feel something gaining on her.

"Wolf!" She cried out, but her voice was stifled by the thick air.

_Wolf cannot save you now. Only I can do that. The Queen is waiting for you, waiting to take your pain away._ Sloan shook her head as if trying to flick off a fly. The pain in her leg would pass. She tried to ignore the voice that she was sure was speaking for the Aparoid Queen.

_In your leg, yes… that pain will pass… put what about the pain in your mind? You have a desire, do you not? A desire to be wanted? A desire for a family? Stop running and have your desires fulfilled, finally._ Sloan whipped around again, this time with her fist swinging. He had been so close, right in her ear. But when she struck out she hit nothing. She stopped, her lungs burning for air. She slowly circled around. She knew when she was being picked on. She was weak, isolated, in pain and in need of medical help. She just had to ignore it. She limped painfully in the direction of the light, but she drew back when she could no longer see it. She looked around wildly. Had Wolf not noticed she was missing? She stumbled against one of the trees, her fingers scuttling against the smooth bark, looking for a place to take hold.

_Poor Sloan, abandoned yet again. You thought he was different, didn't you? You thought you had found someone that cared? What a sad mistake._

"Get out of my head!" she howled. "Leave me alone! He'll… he'll." She stumbled over a tree root and fell over. Dirt ground into her wound. A white light flooded over her, choking her. A horrible feeling filled her. He really wasn't coming. He was going to leave her for dead.

_All your sadness… but it doesn't end there, does it? Sadness was everything once… but there is more. Anger, hatred. Deep down you are a killer, a vicious animal. This is your destiny. You are running towards what you seek to flee. But the Queen can save you from your fate. She will give you purpose and direction._ A ghostly white hand reached out of her. She tried to smack it away. It dissipated like a cloud warped by the wind, only to return to its original form. It got closer and closer, opening palm up, asking for her hand. Purpose and direction… a family where she would be wanted. Was he speaking the truth?

"Wolf's not going to save me…" she murmured.

_That's right. But the Queen, oh, she wants to meet you. Wants to meet you very badly. She thinks you're the most amazing creature._She looked back down at the hand, still held out for her. She swallowed hard, not sure what to do. Everything seemed to be pressing in around her. Finally her hand started to rise, moving towards the white, foggy light. The hand got closer, eager to take her. They touched. The light seemed to be flowing into her, making her pain go away. She smiled. She'd never felt so warm and happy.

Their fingers almost locked when Sloan felt something grab her by the collar. She was wrenched backwards out of the light, pain lurched back into her leg. She thudded into something hard that smelled like Wolf. Her eyes filled with tears. He came back for her.

There was an enraged hiss from the Aparoid that had been so close to assimilating Sloan as Blaster rounds lit up the air all around her. Wolf's hand moved to her shoulder and tightened as he dragged her backwards, away from the menace. He threw her roughly behind a tree and then ran back into the fray without a word to Sloan. Sloan curled up behind the tree, silently praying that no one got hurt. If they did, it would be entirely her fault.

After what seemed like hours but was only few seconds, there was a final howl of pain, and the Blaster fire died. Sloan could here the crunching of grass as Wolf came closer. She shivered, it was probably the same sound her neck would make after Wolf got a hold of her. It was obvious when he came into view that he was trying to control his rage. Once Panther and Leon appeared, she was surrounded. No escape. Leon was grinning dangerously, eager to see what was to come. Sloan looked feebly up at Wolf, unsure whether or not to meet his gaze.

"Just what the _hell_ was that?" he growled.

"Um, I think it was an Aparoid," she answered in barely more than a whisper.

"You know that's not what I mean." Sloan hung her head.

"I got separated."

"Why didn't you call out?"

"I-I thought I could catch up. I didn't want to be a burden."

"We'll that plan certainly backfired, didn't it. Dammit Sloan, there were people back in Lylat that wanted you benched, and I vouched for you! And then you go and do this?" Silence fell on the little group. Wolf's eyes flashed down to her injury, much more aggravated than it had been on the station. "What happened?"

"This happened at the Orbital gate. I fell and opened it again." Wolf shook his head and, muttering under his breath, kneeled down next to Sloan. He pointed at her pack.

"Go in there and get the bio spray, med caplets and some gauze." Sloan rifled through her survival gear while Wolf reached into her own pack.

The smile slid off Leon's face, Wolf wasn't going to kill her. She wasn't even going to get smacked or anything. It was as if Wolf had seen her injury and completely forgotten her transgression. Leon couldn't understand what had come over Wolf when it came to the whelp. Anyone else would have been told to pack their bags long ago.

"You know, Falco already but some stuff on it," Sloan told Wolf. Wolf said nothing. "I don't need the med caps, it doesn't hurt that bad." That last part was a lie, it did hurt that bad, but she didn't want to look any more like a wimp than she already did. Wolf gave her a look that said it would be in her best interest to stop talking, and she took two of out of the black and red sectioned cylinder and swallowed them. The pain in her leg instantly subsided a great deal. Wolf pulled something that looked like a wetnap out of his pack.

"What is that?" Sloan asked.

"It's to clean out the wound." He ripped open the package and unwrapped it until it was about the length of Sloan's gash, then he pulled a black handled hunting knife out of a sheath on his lower leg and cut it off. He put the excess back in the package and pressed the white material to her wound. It stung, but Sloan bit her lip. No more complaining. After he was finished he expertly wrapped up the wound and was about to help her to her feet when he suddenly pulled back.

"Panther!" He barked. Panther stepped forward and slipped his arm under hers, lifting her thin frame easily off the ground. She slid her arm across his shoulders. Panther's brow wrinkled, it felt like there was something in Sloan's hand. He reached over and turned her hand over. The palm, the place that the light had seemed to flood into, was now encrusted in Aparoid crystal. He gave her a look that said 'what the hell?' Sloan looked horrified, but she held a finger to her lips, begging him to be silent. It wasn't growing, and it wasn't doing anything to her, so she would get it looked at later.

"Did you figure out what stopped the Aparoids?" Sloan asked Wolf, turning her palm down again to hide it from him.

"We were _almost_ there when Wolf noticed you missing." Leon hissed. "I think we should have kept going."

"I'm wondering whether or not anything stopped the Aparoids at all." Panther said before Sloan could say anything. "After all, if they couldn't come onto this ground, how could they attack Sloan?"

"But why would the Aparoids, creatures bent on total destruction, stop expanding across this planet for no reason at all?" Wolf countered. "And besides, the Aparoid that attacked Sloan wasn't normal. It seemed like it almost didn't have a body."

"Solid enough to blast into oblivion," Leon hissed gleefully. The memory was delicious to him.

"Maybe they weren't forced to, but there was a practical reason, like they ran low on resources," Sloan said offhandedly. Wolf looked at her for a moment before turning and heading in the opposite direction.

"An interesting idea and, under the current circumstances, most likely," Wolf muttered to no one in particular. The group followed Wolf in silence. He seemed to know where he was going. Sloan was sure she could feel whatever it was that attacked her following them, afraid to come after her again with Wolf so near even though she knew it was dead. Sloan limped along, most of her weight supported by Panther.

Nothing changed as they walked through the seemingly endless forest, every tree looked the exact same as the next. Sloan was just beginning to wonder if they were going in circles when the trees abruptly ended, and they were standing in front of the black, pulsing wall that the Aparoids had erected around there city. If Sloan strained to hear, she could just make out the sound of Blaster fire as Fox took the city.

Sloan took a deep breath of fresh air that she hadn't realize she had been denied until she left the forest. The air wasn't nearly as heavy here. Looking up, the black sky, devoid of light pollution, was full of stars. A spiral arm of the galaxy stretched overhead. Wolf was half way between the forest and the wall, staring down at something. Sloan slipped off of Panther and limped up beside him. In front of them was a strange strip of blueish sand, six feet wide and winding out of sight in either direction, standing like some impenetrable barrier between the city and forest. Other than its strange colouring and the fact that it glittered slightly in the starlight -or was the light emanating from the sand itself?-, there was nothing to distinguish it from normal sand. Sloan kneeled down and picked up a handful of it, watching as it slipped through her fingers.

"Wow, it's really pretty."

"Watch it," Wolf cautioned, "your wound will get infected if the sand gets into it."

"Do you think this is what stopped them?"

"I doubt they halted destruction of a world on account of some pretty sand," Leon chided. Sloan shot him an angry look.

"Do you have any better ideas you stuck up-ow!" she cried out because it felt like something had just bitten her. She dropped her handful of sand and looked down into the hand that had the Aparoid crystal in it, the hand that had been bitten. Wriggling in it was a tiny glowing gold beetle. It had bitten down into the Aparoid crystal in her hand. Sloan started to shake her hand madly as more pain shot through it.

"Get it off me!" she shrieked. The sand started to froth as a multitude of golden beetles started to crawl out, spread their wings, and fly directly to Sloan. Her hand was soon covered, and they started to crawl up her arm. By now she was screaming, but no one could help her, they had all been swarmed as well. The swarm seem to only be halting the rest of the team from movement, biting and flying directly at their eyes, but not truely attacking. Sloan however looked like she was being eaten alive. By know she was just a writhing mass of gold.

Finally she fell still, her screams subsiding.


	12. Chapter 12

(Author's Note) As this is the final chapter of my first (but definitely not last) story published on I think this is the most appropriate time to say my Thank-you's to everyone who reviewed my story and really took an interest. However, I have a very special thank you for Viable-Solution, who not only gave me invaluable technical information, and a chance to get my ideas in line, but he also helped my story (and me) through the low points of this venture. Without the constant encouragement, I doubt this story ever would have been finished. So enjoy, and I hope to see y'all back for the next instalment in Sloan's saga, "An Old Friend's Request"!

Wolf fought desperately against the swarm. But all his efforts were futile, and he could only watch as the bugs seemed to devour Sloan. Knowing it was pointless, but not being able to sit by and do nothing, Wolf tried to pull out his side arm, a simple projectile pistol that wasn't powerful and used only for emergencies. He was hoping he might be able to scare them off, but seconds after slipping it out if its holster he felt several biting pains in his wrist and dropped it as a reflex motion. The swarm around his eye increased, and it was a few seconds before he could open it again.

An icy chill ran through him. The glowing lump of Sloan's body had stopped moving, the bugs still writhing over her.

_Oh god, she's dead. They killed her._ Wolf looked around, fighting off panic. If they had truly killed Sloan, it was only a matter of time before they started on the rest of the team. To make matters worse, he watched as the bugs, putting there collective strength of hundreds of bodies to work, started to move her body towards the sand. He growled, anger bubbling in him. They may have taken her life, but they wouldn't get away with her body. Without thinking, he reached into a lower pack on his survival gear, pulled out a flare, lit it, and caught half a dozen bugs all in one powerful swing.

The bugs that had been lit squealed in pain. The others reacted immediately. Suddenly, there were no more insect jaws biting at him, no more bodies flying into his eyes. As quickly as they had come, they receded into the sand. The ones on Sloan stopped, unsure whether to leave their prize and hide or if they had enough time to take her with them. Wolf didn't give them a chance to make their decision. He fell on them swinging. Dead, flaming bugs flew in all directions.

They decided to cut there losses and flew back to the relative safety of the sand. There would be more bodies for them to claim. Wolf chased them back and made sure they were gone. After the sand and wings settled, a heavy silence pressed in on Wolf's ears, making them ring. He turned back to look at Sloan's body, fighting the tears that were threatening to spring up.

She was lying on the ground with her arms against her sides and her legs straight. It looked like the bugs had tied her down as they sucked the life out of her fragile body. Her mouth was slightly open. Some of her clothes and skin had been eaten away, leaving only raw flesh in some places. Her muscles were relaxed, something Wolf realised he had never seen before. He had never even realised how tense she was, how full of fear and nerves, until there was no more time to ease her apprehension and make it right. He didn't even understand his guilt. He wasn't responsible for her, he was just her boss.

_What a load of crap._ He thought angrily to himself. She was 14, and he was the only adult watching her back, this was his fault. He kneeled down next to her to check her pulse. He reached over her, his fingers almost touching her neck.

Her whole body bucked as she suddenly started on a coughing fit. Panther jumped in surprise. Wolf would have as well if Sloan's hands hadn't jerked up and grabbed his arms so tightly it felt as if she would never let go. She pulled herself up until she was pressed against his chest and took a gasping breath before coughing up one of the bugs. Her whole body was shivering, and she pushed herself even closer against him. Wolf wasn't sure whether or not to hold her.

"Sloan, are you alright?" Panther asked nervously.

"They… they were eating me… and stinging… I couldn't get away. Oh god, it hurts. And they…" she held up the hand that had once been encrusted with Aparoid crystal. The skin was now clear and smooth. Wolf, confused, looked at Panther for clarification.

"There was crystal in her hand. They must have eaten it or something." Wolf reached across Sloan –a gesture that could have been construed as a kind of hug if you looked at it very loosely- and pulled her off slightly to the side to pick up the bug she had coughed up. It was small, probably less than an inch long and, even in death, emitted a slight glow from its round body. Its wings were crumpled and its six legs were tight in to its body. Wolf looked over at the bed of sand, its glow so much more sinister now that they knew the source of the light.

"So that's why the Aparoids didn't dare move outward, the bugs would have eaten them alive," Wolf murmured. "And it's why the bugs only attacked Sloan. They must have thought she was an assimilated organic."

"Wolf," Sloan croaked. "I swallowed one."

"I can see that, Sloan," Wolf replied, trying to keep the sarcastic sting out of his voice. She didn't need any more trouble. He felt terrible. One because of what he had put her through and two because he had to swallow his pride and agree with Fox. Maybe he was right and Sloan wasn't ready for this, but now she had no choice but to continue.

"No," she whispered hoarsely. "I mean another one," And she leaned over his shoulder and coughed it up. Wolf tried not to grimace.

"Is that all?"

"I think so…" Exhausted, she rested her head on his shoulder. Leon looked like he was about to be sick. Panther got up and went carefully over to the pit of sand.

"Oh my god." The frothing of the sand had turned up the sinister treasures of the bugs. Bones now littered the sand, poking up from below. Panther shivered. How close Sloan had come do joining them forever. "Are you alright? Can you still fly?" Panther asked. They had to get off this planet. Sloan lifted her head and shook it to clear her foggy mind.

"Yeah, yeah I think I'm good."

"You were just nearly eaten by bugs. You better be positive," Wolf told her. Sloan nodded vigorously.

"I'm positive." Just to prove it, she stood up. Only to lose her balance and nearly fall back down on her face. Wolf reached out and caught her.

"Really, I'm okay. I'm just a little dizzy. It'll pass. Really. I just need a… little rest." With that she curled up against Wolf again and closed her eyes. Wolf was not particularly convinced.

She woke up from her snooze about 45 minutes later and continued to try and get back on her feet. She was soon able to stand up again, even if she was leaning against Wolf's shoulder. Her body had been weakened by the insect onslaught, but there was strength in her eyes.

Wolf's comm. crackled to life. Fox's exited voice came through.

"Wolf, all the hatchers have been destroyed, the shield is down! Where are you?!"

"Kind of in the middle of something." He glanced over at Sloan, who nodded. "We're on our way."

XXX

Wolf half carried Sloan back to the Wolfens. She was the first off the ground and circled the team impatiently to prove her ready and willingness to go.

"You're sure you're alright? There will be no chance to save you if you screw up again," Wolf told her as they broke the cloud barrier on the other side of the planet.

"I didn't come all the way out here to be a bench warmer." Wolf grinned.

"Fair enough." There was no Aparoid resistance as they cleared the huge fortress-like black wall that hugged the city. The calm silence made Sloan's skin crawl. Below were the signs of a hard fought and bloody battle. Whole walls were scarred by plasma and laser fire, along with the discharge from Aparoid weapons.

"What happened here?" Panther asked his companions. Wolf looked down to see what was left of the Great Fox smashed into the gaping mouth that the Aparoids had carved into the planet.

"The shield! It's coming back up!" Sloan yelped. Sure enough, the crystal was gliding back across the hole like ice covering a pond. As fast as the Wolfens could take them was barely fast enough, and Leon slipped in just before it closed completely. There was a groaning protest from the hull as the shield crushed the Great Fox.

"How are we supposed to get back out?"

"We'll have to worry about that later, Fox!" Wolf bellowed out his enemy's name.

"Wolf, you made it!" Fox seemed relieved to see him.

"Of course, so now what?"

"Get through this maze and give the Queen her present."

"I like the sound of this," Leon hissed.

"Incoming!" Slippy cried. They fell into line and, as a unified front, took on the Aparoids that came for them. There were three rings of Aparoids that interlocked. As soon as one in the chain had been destroyed, they separated into smaller units and started to attack individually. Sloan cut out of the line and took a dozen of them while barrel rolling. The plasma that was deflecting off her shields was flying everywhere, making as much of a hazard as the Aparoids flying relentlessly at them. This, Wolf realized, had been carefully planned by the Aparoid Queen. Her attackers had to be careful not to strike there allies both with a miss-shot on the quick moving, small Aparoids and with the ricochet from their high velocity plasma cannon. Three more rings soon came into view.

"It's just like those bugs," Sloan told Wolf. "They just don't stop coming." That association with the creatures that had nearly killed her didn't frighten her, it made her fight harder. Wolf nearly took off Fox's wing after rolling out of the way of a birdlike Aparoid and ended up smashing into a wall. Panther was nearly destroyed by a wall mounted cannon that Falco just managed to take out before it landed the killshot. Krystal, Slippy, Panther and Leon fell back and caught all the Aparoids that tried to circle around behind the main fighting force, which ended up being Sloan, Fox, Falco and Wolf.

Wolf couldn't help but be proud of Sloan. She had come through for them under pressure and was tearing up Aparoids left and right. Fox had noticed to, and spoke up about it after she pulled off a difficult manoeuvre that saved him from heavy fire.

"Wow, I have to say, you're better than I ever expected." Sloan smirked.

"We're not done yet, tell me that again once we accomplish our mission and get out of here in one piece."

"Watch yourself Sloan," Wolf snapped as a barrier of light suddenly sprang up just off her right wing. It was Fox who got clipped by it and it threw him into a second wall. He righted himself just in time to miss the third, but sustained heavy damage. Light barriers had cut the glowing purple passage into pieces just big enough for their ships to fit through, all while ever more Aparoids were being hurled at them. Sloan was trying not to be overwhelmed by it all.

The light walls finally stopped coming, but then the tunnel narrowed until there was only enough space for one ship at a time. Then, up ahead, Sloan saw blades that revolved at different speeds. Timing would be incredibly important to keep herself and her ship intact. Even with the slowing effects the dangerous situation had on her mind, manoeuvring had to be sharp and immediate to be able to slip past the blades positioned so close together. She broke through only to be confronted with more wall mounted cannons and a bird Aparoid that fired electrical bolts that rippled across her ship and threatened to breach her hull. It was a never ending onslaught.

_I hope you see your mistake._ A female voice said in her ear. Sloan looked around, but couldn't see any other ships. Even Wolf and the others had disappeared.

"Who…?" she asked her cockpit, not hitting the comm.

_I'm the one that gave you a chance to live. But you chose to die like your foolish leader. Your kind are always so resistant to change._

"Die like… Wolf! Where are you!?" She turned her Wolfen around to see him floating near a wall. He had not been so lucky with the blades. One of his wings had been ripped clean off and blue engine coolant was oozing out of the machine. Her heart jumped into her throat. "Wolf! Say something!"

"Stop yelling Sloan, I hear you," Wolf said quietly. He didn't sound good, but at least he was alive.

"Are you okay?"

"I've felt worse." She heard him shift in his seat, and gasp in pain. "But I've seen better days. Worry about yourself Sloan, I'll be fine."

In truth, he wasn't fine. He had hit the very last blade and that's how he'd lost his wing. It had sent him into the wall with such force that his four point harness hadn't been able to hold him to his seat and his face had slammed forward into the control panel. He was gasping for the breath that had been knocked out of him by his harness. The pain in his muzzle had him seeing stars, and he could feel the blood running down his face. His artificial eye had shorted out from the impact.

He unclipped the harness in the hopes it would help him breath, but just the difficulty of that simple action told him there were internal injuries. He watched as Sloan glided away to intercept yet another batch of Aparoids. Fox and his team had moved on to the Queen, Panther and Leon would soon be here.

"Looks like you don't need me after all," he murmured. He wanted to close his remaining eye but he feared it wouldn't open again. This wasn't the first time he'd lay badly wounded, possibly dieing, in the cockpit of his Wolfen. His mind wandered back through time and space, back ten years to Titania, where he had engaged in his first dogfight in a Wolfen. It wasn't so much different now. He could barely see, barely breath, the cold was creeping in. And again, he couldn't just give in to the cold and let it all end.

_You want to think everything has change, but it hasn't. You still have people you can't leave behind, things you can't leave undone. You know it, but you never want to believe it. You always have to be running from something._ He thought to himself.

"Wolf!" Sloan's cry brought him back from his thoughts. "Wolf we've got to go! Star Fox got the virus into the Queen, the Aparoids are gone, and the whole planet is coming down around our ears!" Wolf leaned forward to check his engine. Dead, totally dead, it was barely keeping him stable in the air. Soon even that power would be drained, and he'd plummet to what would surely be his death. He slumped back into his seat, exhausted by the simple movement. He could think of more painful ways to die.

"No can do kid. Engine's toast. Forget about me and just get yourself out." A huge piece of the wall fell away, missing Wolf by only a few feet.

"What? No, I'm not leaving you here! You saved my life more times than I'm worth, and as soon as you're in trouble I'm supposed to leave you in the dust? Just what do you take me for?!" He watched as she got so close to him her wing nearly touched his battered fuselage, then rummaged around in her cockpit. He couldn't really see what she was doing thanks to the tint. Her canopy opened and Wolf could see she had unbuckled herself. He furrowed his brow.

_What the hell are you doing?_ He watched as she pushed off the Wolfen and jumped across the gap, landing unsteadily on his remaining wing. The ship shuddered under the sudden increase in weight, but somehow both Sloan and Wolfen managed to stay up. Sloan punched a code into her comm. bracelet and Wolf's canopy opened. She reached in for his hand.

"Sloan…"

"I'm not leaving her without you, so unless you want to kill me along with yourself, take my hand." Her face was set and determined. She really was ready to die for him. The determination in her face was edge with desperation. The look in her eyes was one that said, don't leave me, I need you. He slowly reached up and took her hand in his. His glove was torn, and he realized this was the first time he had touched her without a barrier between them. It was a strange feeling.

Something flashed past his eyes. A vision of something far off. A glimmer of grey fur, green scales. A scream in Sloan's voice. He could feel something small and hot on his cheek.

Sloan saw something too, a glint of gold usually hidden by his glove.

Something yanked Wolf upwards and out of his vision. Sloan had pulled him forwards half out of the cockpit with strength one wouldn't expect from her small size. He helped pull himself out with all the strength he had left. Sloan slipped under his arm and guided him to her own Wolfen. They somehow managed to get across the gap between their wings, and he half fell into the second seat.

No sooner had he sat down than there was an ear splitting crash, and a section of the ceiling fell away, directly onto Wolf's dieing ship. The debris crushed the cockpit and sent the Wolfen falling into nothingness under the huge chunk of rock.

"My ship," Wolf moaned.

"That's our way out," Sloan said confidently, not seeming to hear Wolf's cry of distress. She pointed up at the hole that had been created by the falling debris that had put Wolf ship out of its misery. Beyond it was a tunnel. Sloan wasn't sure how she knew, but it was the only way out that they had. She boosted though before anyone could stop her, and, seeing no alternative, they opted to follow.

The falling debris were just as dangerous as the Aparoids that had now disappeared entirely, and she was limited not just by the tiny space the Queen had squeezed them into, but the fact that she couldn't get too fancy thanks to her precious cargo. She could hear him growl down his pain every time she made a turn a bit too sharp.

Suddenly, the tunnel angled up steeply, then went sharply down until the nose of her ship was nearly vertical. Wolf leaned forward and grabbed her headrest tightly.

"Wolf, say something. Are you alright?" The fear in her voice was unmistakeable. Wolf didn't answer, he couldn't open his mouth without pain. Instead he slipped a hand onto her shoulder for a second to show he was alright.

The tunnel had begun to darken now, the badly damaged walls no longer giving off light. Below her was the way out, she knew it, but as she got closer, she saw the glint of crystal covering the way.

"Shit!" she hissed. It was a covering that looked like stained glass. It looked thin, but there was no real way to tell its true thickness. "Wolf-"

"Go through it, full power." Sloan hesitated for barely a second before giving the engine all she had.

The crash was thunderous. She was thrown forward to the limit of her harness. Shattered glass was everywhere, and for one terrifying moment she thought that the glass of her cockpit had broken along with the crystal. They were both tumbling end over end. Sloan squeezed her eyes shut.

_Dammit, we got so far and now we're going to die._ Slowly, everything stopped moving. Sloan was still breathing hard, hands balled into fists. One eye slowly peeled open. They were lying at an odd angle, the engine overheated from the sudden burst.

"Sloan, Wolf, are you alright?" Panther asked, flying over her.

"If you injured Wolf with that stunt, I'll-" Leon started.

"Christ Leon, she just saved our lives! Give her a break!" Panther snarled. Sloan could tell by his voice that he was at the end of his nerves. Wolf was laughing quietly.

"Just like me when I was your age. You did good kid. Not that there isn't a lot of room for improvement," he added quickly. Sloan was speechless with pride. Panther noticed the Arwings leaving for the orbital gate portal.

"We should follow them," he stated the obvious to affect some movement.

"Don't let them see us," Wolf ordered He turned back to the remains of the once beautiful planet with all its deadly secrets. "For now, let's just let them think we're out of the picture." Sloan obliged by stealthily creeping behind them and slipping into the stream only after making sure that they were gone. Wolf slumped back into his seat. It seemed like ages since he had seen Lylat. He wasn't sorry to leave the pathetic rubble of a planet that had been just as abused as the organic souls it had imprisoned.

XXX

A solitary metal shape floated amongst the newly formed asteroids. It was about the size of a basketball, with four metal arms each about a foot long and ending in blinking lights. Inside its thick metal casing was a camera, the eyes of a man far away, who had been watching the scene thoughtfully. He put his glass of champagne down on the polished oak desk. A vicious grin spread across his face.

"An interesting development. We lose control of the subject, only to have her usually abysmal abilities suddenly become amazing. Incredible. You are lucky, King, the subject saved your life. I will overlook this slip on your part."

"Thank you, sir," Regis King answered from a different monitor of to the man's right.

"Of course," the man continued after a sip of champagne, "The subject has reached its 14th year and needs to be brought in for analysis." He turned an unfeeling eye in King's direction. "You will recapture it. This time there can be no mistakes."

"Sir, there is the small problem of the Star Wolf team. Their leader seems to have become attached to it. After all, he did hide it's presence from me."

"Yes, I thought of that. I've looked at his record. I'm sure his allegiance can be bought."

"I don't believe his record accurately represents him."

"No? Well, if you must, get rid of him. There can be no loose ends, King. Your life depends on it. This little rat needs to fade into the darkness of obscurity. You must make sure that by the time this is all over, its wretched name shall never been on another person's lips."

"Of course, sir." But the man didn't hear those words, for he had already closed the connection between them. Neither did he see King's static face turn back to its usually fearsome smirk.

It was time for the hunt to begin.


End file.
